Sugar is like Alcohol to the Liver (video)

Yogini Ami Fox (foxpoweryoga.com)

(UCtelevision) Damage is caused by sugary foods. The worldwide obesity epidemic is caused by too much fructose and too little fiber. These are the cornerstones due to their affect on insulin. (UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public, 7/09, Show ID: 16717)

Yogis: Sugar is metabolized by the liver in a way that's comparable to alcohol. When we do certain detox poses, it is important because it detoxes the liver. This is not only for individuals who consume alcohol. This lecture series by Dr. Robert H. Lustig, MD, a Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at UC San Francisco. The series explores the damage caused by sugary foods.

The lecture is thorough in 90 minutes. It is worth watching because it is a life saver. I had a complete paradigm shift after watching the series. What does this have to do with yoga? In yoga and other health circles, diet is considered crucial. Sugar has a profound impact on our states of mind.

If sugar is a toxin -- processed and treated like a toxic chemical -- maybe it is something to be aware of and to treat with the same as any intoxicant. Food for thought. Namaste,

Yogini Ami Fox, Los Angeles

Sex or Meditation? Top 10 Promiscuous Cities

Wisdom Quarterly (SEX AND RELATIONSHIPS COMMITTEE)

In just one hour of trying not to think about sex, Binky discovered how kinky he really is ("Life in Hell" by Matt Groening).

It probably does not happen to anyone else. But when we meditate, our minds tend to drift toward sex. Why the mind likes to relive (past) or imagine (future) pleasant sensation, we cannot fathom.

The eye is not trapped by forms... and the body is not trapped by tactile sensations. If it were enlightened beings would not be free, or freedom would be as easy as sitting alone in the dark.

The mind is like a monkey trapped five times over. Imagine a silly monkey (or rabbit) who has wandered far from its familiar realm. It sees honey and grasps it.

The honey is not only sweet, it's gluey. It can't let go. It grabs the honey with the other hand to get its first hand loose. That hand gets caught, too. It uses a foot, then another foot, and finally its mouth -- and is caught five times over, stuck, in a ridiculous quandary.

The mind obsessed with sex is like that. Its senses fall into bondage. But the honey is sweet! Yes, and the glue is gluey. If we do not rise above, we stay trapped right where we are.

Where are we? CBS News reports that there are ten top cities for furtive honey searches. Mindfully meditating never hurt a monkey. All of its distress came from letting its mind wander far from the present moment. Even the Nazis couldn't keep the monkeys safe.

• VAMPIRE MONKEY: This Chinese sucking species lives solely off other animals’ blood, one of the only primates to do so. It creates complex nests similar to the weaver bird's. It uses handmade tools like humans and is possibly the "missing link" in the evolution of modern humans (Yoon84).

Top 10 Promiscuous Cities in America (CBS News)

Hitler gave NAZIs sex dolls for protection

A new book reveals that the French resistance and Allied bombers weren’t the only threats that Hitler’s Nazi soldiers faced in Paris during World War II. Turns out syphilis -- spread from dalliances with French prostitutes -- presented a more clandestine danger. To combat Nazi soldiers’ temptations from the Parisian joie de vivre, Hitler gave the okay to manufacture blow up sex dolls [invented by Nazis?] as a more hygienic alternative, reports The Herald Sun. More

That Thing (doo wop)

• VIDEO: Santa Monica customers strip for free clothes
  
• Fun facts about kissing
• Top 10 photos that shocked the world
• Reasons for not having sex on purpose?
• There are as many reasons to quit giving up the goods as there are people to stop giving them up. And hey, you can’t really blame them -- hurricanes, earthquakes, tropical storms. Nature is doing some serious blocking.
• Chimeras: Lamb gives birth to lamb with human face
• Half human-half goat born alive in Zimbabwe
  
• VIDEO: Extraterrestrial-Human hybrid baby
• HELL TV: Girls love to see themselves on camera
• VIDEO: Hopping the US Border in 15 seconds
• The immigration question is a hot button issue. One bad solution was to build a giant Berlin wall near the Mexican border. But American girls can climb over in 15 seconds.
• Predicting weather and earthquakes (like New Zealand)
• Close encounter: UFO Fest gives visitors a view of the unexplained
• We can all save KPFA together
• Eccentric or Undiagnosed?
  
• Jain Festival at Mattancherry
  

Chanting "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo" didn't save Amy

Amy Winehouse dies in spite of Soka Gakai chanting

Even though she chanted daimoku, she remained addicted, suicidal, and on a self-destructive path. Does that mean daimoku doesn't "work?" That depends what one means by "work." If we think namu-myoho-renge-kyo is a magic phrase that makes us happy and is a get-out-of-death-and-suffering-free card, no, it doesn't "work." Nichiren Buddhism is a life-long practice -- even if our life turns out to be heartbreakingly short. It's not a quick fix or magic cure. More

Just Chant This and That's It?

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

Is it possible that Brahminical-style chants that mimic Sanskrit hymns (gathas) do not have magical power?

The Vedas gave the ancient Indus Valley Civilizations, which Adi Shankara's Hinduism claims as its inheritance, mantras for everything.

These enchantments first focused the minds of seers (rishis) and were then used by brahmins to enhance their temple-bound priesthood that the Buddha (and other spiritual wanderers or shramans) rejected.

But the technique is sound -- repetition that cuts off normal consciousness and gives way to an elevated state. Simply chanting never works anymore than saying "Abracadabra" or "Open Sesame."

But sincere, persistent, and devoted utterance of special sounds is widely accepted as being effective IF it is consistent and in integrity with one's life. Living one way and chanting another is working at odds with one's professed intention. For example, trying to quit drugs while chanting Nichiren Buddhism's hallmark hymn might really help.

But getting high to enhance the elevation brought on by dedicated chanting is only mocking the process. Or, worse, using the chant as a quick shortcut to material riches -- why, IF that worked, who wouldn't do it? Nichiren goes much deeper than a pretty mantra and a cultish appearance.

• Maybe it worked: Did Amy Winehouse die of alcohol withdrawal?
• What is Nichiren and "Value Creation"? (sgi-usa.org)

Tina Turner chants on CNN's Larry King

• PHOTOS: Drugs ruin a person's youthful looks
• Too much of a good thing: When sex lasts too long
• Amy's parents, public braced for death for years
• Amy Winehouse joins unfortunate 27 Forever Club
• Three-way Los Angeles AdultCon cancels convention
• Squatting (adverse possession) to get a home
• Squatter gets $330,000 house in Texas for $16

The Four Truths of Recovery

(thesun.co.uk)

Amy Winehouse was a Jewish-Buddhist. But it was a first when she pulled out of a festival [Rock En Seine Festival in Paris] because she was in a state of Buddhist relaxation. The singer has been trying to find peace in her chaotic life by chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

For those who have alcohol, illegals drugs, or engage in addictive routines to unwind, Amy found a better option: Nicherin Buddhism, perhaps the most questionable form of devotional "value creation."

The Sun quotes a source as saying: "One of her musicians introduced Amy to Buddhist chanting. She chants for ten minutes in the mornings and just before she sleeps.

"Amy has also been watching the interview clip of Tina Turner chanting on YouTube [on Larry King Live] and she reckons it's already affecting her in a positive way.

"She has a string of Buddhist beads that she chants with, which she keeps in a red silk scarf.

"She says chanting is filling her life with positivity while she is trying to sort herself out." More

Buddhist 12 Steps

AgainstTheStream.org

1. Addiction is Suffering.

• Understand, acknowledge, admit, and accept all of the ways drugs, alcohol, and so on have caused suffering in our lives. Action: Write an in-depth and detailed inventory of the suffering you have experienced in association with your addictions.

2. The Cause of Addiction is Craving.

• Understand that all forms of addiction have their roots in the natural human tendency to crave for life to be more pleasurable and less painful than it actually is. The substances we have craved and become addicted to must be abandoned and renounced. Action: Investigate, analyze, and share the inventory with your mentor or teacher and come to understand the cause of your addiction/suffering.

3. Recovery is Possible.

• Freedom from the suffering caused by addiction is attainable, IF we are ready and willing to follow the eightfold path. Action: Study and apply the Buddhist teachings on enlightenment (awakening) and eventually you will come to a verified-faith in the path of recovery/enlightenment through the actions you take on the path.

4. The 8-Fold Path to Recovery.

• The eight factors or folds of the path are to be developed, experienced and penetrated. This is a path of action not blind faith, recovery will only come from taking the right actions. This is not a linear path, it does not have to be taken in order, rather all of the factors will need to be developed and applied simultaneously. This is a guide to having a life that is free from addiction, not a process that we go through once or twice, the eight folds of recovery will have to be maintained through out one's life.

Amy Winehouse: Drugs vs. "Rehab" (video)

In 2006, Amy Winehouse (1984-2011) became a star, the voice of a new generation, by insisting she would not be going to "Rehab." She would be dead within five years.

• TIMELINE: Life of Amy Winehouse (E Online)
• VIDEO: Amy Winehouse's Life and Death (ABC News)
• Norway: White man's terror attack done to blame Muslims

Already a star in the U.K., Winehouse makes her debut on U.S. TV with "Rehab."

Singer Found Dead in Apartment

LONDON, England - Troubled British singer Amy Winehouse [with her violent partner in prison] was found dead at her flat in north London, police said. She was 27 years old. The Grammy award-winning [neo-]soul singer struggled with well-documented drink and drug addictions. Her death is being treated as unexplained. "Police were called by London Ambulance Service to an address in Camden Square shortly before 4:05 pm (local time) today, Saturday 23 July, following reports of a woman found deceased," a police statement said. "On arrival officers found the body of a 27-year-old female who was pronounced dead..." More

Drunk and/or stoned, Amy Winehouse is booed during comeback tour, live in Belgrade on June 18, 2011. She then launches into "Back To Black."

Rehab without a "Higher Power"

Recovery from addictions of all kinds is possible in a Buddhist context. Buddhism is nontheistic (not dependent on a God for "salvation"/enlightenment). Many Buddhists are theists, but many others are atheistic, agnostic, or undecided.

Not recognizing a supreme being as a higher power makes traditional 12-Step programs unpalatable. (Of course, the nature of the "higher power" one chooses need not be a god, but that is definitely how most participants treat it as part of their recovery.

Thanks to mavericks like Kevin Griffin, who wrote One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps it is quite possible to successfully overcome addiction and unrelenting craving in a nontheistic context.

A Buddhist Version of the 12 Steps

Step 1 - We admitted we were powerless over our addiction -- that our lives had become unmanageable.

Step 2 - Came to believe that spiritual practice could restore us to sanity.

Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the power of the Dharma.

Step 4 - Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Step 5 - Admitted to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our suffering.

Step 6 - Were entirely ready to let go of all these defects of character.

Step 7 - Humbly asked for our shortcomings to be removed through prayer and meditation.

Step 8 - Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

Step 9 - Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Step 10 - Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Step 11 - Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with reality and to live a life with more wisdom and compassion.

Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Is Porn Driving Men Crazy?

Text by english.aljazeera.net

Some experts speculate that pornography is making men more interested in perversity and less interested in their own partners.

It is hard to ignore how many highly visible men in recent years (indeed, months) have behaved in sexually self-destructive ways. Some powerful men have long been sexually voracious; unlike today, though, they were far more discreet and generally used much better judgment in order to cover their tracks.

Of course, the heightened technological ability nowadays to expose private behavior is part of the reason for this change.... What is driving this weirdly disinhibited decision-making? Could the widespread availability and consumption of pornography in recent years actually be rewiring the male brain, affecting men's judgment about sex, and causing them to have more difficulty controlling their impulses?

There is an increasing body of scientific evidence to support this idea. Six years ago, I wrote an essay called "The Porn Myth," which pointed out that therapists and sexual counselors were anecdotally connecting the rise in pornography consumption among young men with an increase in impotence and premature ejaculation...

The hypothesis among the experts was that pornography was progressively desensitizing these men sexually. Indeed, hardcore pornography's effectiveness in achieving rapid desensitization in subjects has led to its frequent use in training doctors and military teams to deal with very shocking or sensitive situations.

[The military "trains" teams using "hardcore porn"? Might that have something to do with the outrageous rates of rape and sexual assault against fellow soldiers, both male and female, in today's military?] More

• Sex and surveillance
• Life after capitalism
• Egypt readies for "march of a million people"
• Former Cameron media aide meets police
• Yemen president Saleh appears on TV
• Syria condemns US ambassador's visit to Hama
• Texas executes Mexican citizen despite Obama appeal
• Honduras' very own war on terror
• Failed peace talks led Palestine to the UN

Binge-drinking: Why hangovers and bad decisions don't stop us
(CBS) Ever swear off drinking while battling a nasty hangover? You're certainly not alone. Many drinkers experience regrets over one-night stands, shouting matches, and other drunken antics. So why do people continue to drink? Psychologists may finally have found the answer. Simply put... More

A Guide to Life for a New Generation?

(israbox.com)

Buddha Walks into a Bar: Guide to Life for a New Generation

The Buddha Walks into a Bar... (paperback)
Lodro Rinzler

“Meditation” by Be the world
Customer tags: Buddhism drinking, Buddha, bBuddhist meditation, twenty-something Buddhism, meditation, young people Buddhism, Buddhism, Shambhala, spirituality, Tibetan Buddhism

• The Buddha walks into a bar
• Where the buddha walked softcover

Buddhist Jokes (Digital Tibetan Buddhist Altar)

Krisiloff Anti-Inflammatory Diet Revolution

Women with "manly" health problems from treatment

Many go without treatment when their medical problems involve stigmatized body parts, such as the bowels; journalist Katie Couric's on-air colon cancer screening in 2000 was an effort to combat that stigma surrounding the disease that killed her husband. But when symptoms are traditionally associated with "manliness," the shame is often rooted in a fear of being unfeminine or undesirable. [5 Reasons Being a Woman is Good For Your Health]

Milton Krisiloff, M.D. (Scribd.com)
The Prevention for Urinary Problems. Heartburn, Arthritis, & Potentially Prostate Cancer
For the last 30 years, Dr. Krisiloff has personally cared for and cured more than 10,000 patients -- men and women -- who suffer from chronic urological problems.

With a simple holistic approach that has no risk, he has seen cures in close to 90% of his patients who suffer from these problems.

Literally 90 million men and women in the United States experience these urinary problems at one time or another. Estimates are that one quarter of all visits to urologists annually are from these complaints.

Yet until now, university scientists and physicians will readily admit they have no known explanation for these problems, nor do they know how to effectively treat these problems.

With the Krisiloff Diet, a [natural and easy] cure is now possible for the problems of prostatitis, epididymitis, falsely elevated PSA blood tests, bed wetting in children, urgency incontinence in women, urethral syndrome (in Dr. Krisiloff’s opinion this is falsely diagnosed as interstitional cystitis), increased urination at night (which greatly disturbs sleep), and frequent urination in the day (greatly affecting quality of life). Unnecessary prostate surgery for men can be avoided and unnecessary surgery for women for urine incontinence can also be avoided.

• What causes these symptoms? Alcohol, soda/coffee (caffeine), hot spices.

All of this can be accomplished at absolutely zero cost, with absolutely zero harm to the patient. And the results can be seen in as little as four to eight weeks.

With its simple holistic approach, the Krisiloff Diet could supplant all the expensive [allopathic] methods now used. It could become the standard initial treatment for so many common medical problems, often circumventing costly and ineffective traditional methods.

The savings for healthcare would be enormous -- close to $40 billion dollars by some estimates -- once it is realized [and admitted by doctors happy to use the most costly and therefore profitable therapies] that expensive medications and surgeries are not necessary.

Dr. Krisiloff has empitically discovered the “holy grail” explanation for inflammation in the body. The discovery is that caffeine, alcohol, and hot spices are responsible for causing chronic inflammation in the body.

They specifically lead to chronic urinary problems as well as other common medical condition such as gastroesophigeal reflux disease (GERD), arthritis, sinusitis, and headaches. There is even reason to believe that they are responsible for some cases of prostate cancer, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and colon and breast cancers. More

Why we die of sugar and disease (video)

(LatestNutrition) Isolated sugar (fructose separated from its natural components) is a toxin. The American Heart Association now recommends that we keep added sugars to less than 5% of our calorie intake. That's about 25 grams or 6 teaspoons per day for an average-sized adult.

• More evidence linking sugar to heart disease

Diabetes (pancreas)
This statistic is staggering, especially when we realize that there was practically no diabetes prior to 1940!

May 27, 2006: Study finds that a third of American adults have diabetes, and many do not know it. (Reference: June 2006 issue of Diabetes Care).

“Our results underscore the importance of tight glucose [sugar] control in limiting beta-cell destruction…” Glucose [sugar from carbohydrates] causes diabetes. (Reference: Diabetes 2001; 50 1683-1690).

Symptoms of Diabetes
Type I (often come on suddenly and severely)

-Exceptional thirst
-Dry mouth
-Need to urinate often
-Weight loss (though you’re hungry and eating)
-Weakness and tiredness
-Blurry vision

Type II (sometimes do not occur or come on gradually)

-Blurry vision
-Cuts or sores that are slow to heal
-Itchy skin, yeast infections
-Increased thirst
-Dry mouth
-Need to urinate often
-Leg pain

Low-Carbs and Diabetes
1999: Diet of 50% fat [half fat], 30% protein, and 20% [low] carbohydrates improves weight loss and blood lipid profiles in Type II diabetics. (Reference: abstract of presentation before 1999 meeting of Endocrine Society by James Hayes, MD, endocrinologist.

Why Do We Die?

Two-thirds (66%) of people die from just two conditions that involve fatty degeneration.

• Cardiovascular disease - 43.8%
• Cancer - 22.4%

95% of Americans are deficient in essential fatty acids (EFAs). (Reference: Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill (2nd edition), Udo Erasmus, Alive Books, Burnaby, BC, Canada, 1993.

How Disease Works
One way disease works is that the body can produce its own "cleansing" agents (such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and prions) when the need arises. These agents may also be transmitted from others or, as in the case of Mad Cow Disease, by humans ingesting prions by eating the flesh of infected animals.

When these agents start cleaning out the toxins in the body, the toxins are dumped into the bloodstream to be filtered and eliminated from the body. These toxins then cause symptoms doctors diagnose as "disease." Diseases are usually named according to symptoms.

The medical and pharmaceutical establishments then try to produce an enzyme disrupter (allopathic drug) to STOP the cleansing process. This is not done to cure but in order to stop the patient's uncomfortable symptoms.

The drug NEVER "cures" the disease. It just stops the cleansing process so the patient's body remains sick and filled with the toxins, even though the patient may feel somewhat better -- at least for a time. (Reference: Dr. Joseph Mercola, 2003. mercola.com).

"Medicine is far from having decreased human sufferings as much as it endeavors to make us believe. Indeed, the number of infectious diseases has greatly diminished. But we still must die in a much larger proportion from degenerative diseases," Dr. Alexis Carrel, "Man, the Unknown."

(Reference: Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Weston A. Price, D.D.S., McGraw Hill - NTC; 15th edition (June 2003). ISBN: 0879838167 (out of print). More