Dr. Rowen Pfeifer D.C., Health Coach, Nutritionist

Nutrition / Health Coaching Expert

"The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease" - Thomas A. Edison

"First, do no harm", "Let food be thy medicine, let medicine be thy food", "Look well to the spine for the cause of disease" - Hippocrates

Author's Bio
Dr. Pfeifer has been a student of diet,health,nutrition and exercise since 1975. This lead him into an interest in natural healing through Chiropractic care and in 1987 he graduated with honors from Palmer College of Chiropractic at the age of 36. He was president of Living Health Chiropractic, Inc. in Nashville, TN. As an adjunct to the Chiropractic care, Dr. Pfeifer also coaches his patients in the fundamentals of proper diet and lifestyle choices to further improve the healing and recovery of his patients. He can be reached by calling: 615-714-1877, by email:drrowen@livinghealthchiro.com.

THE HEALTHY CELL CONCEPT I – Cell Exercise

BY Dr. Rowen S. Pfeifer

 

I will write several articles giving a general overview of what I feel are the most important aspects of a healthy lifestyle. We will see how our health depends on the health of our individual cells, between 50 and 75 trillion of them! We’ll see how the choices we make on a daily basis affect our cells – either to enhance or diminish the health and/or function of each cell. I’ll describe what I feel is an optimal lifestyle to strive for so we can begin to make choices that will lead us to abundant health in a relatively short period of time.

 

This discussion would be incomplete if we didn’t also address your VISION for your life, and the issues of exercise, supplementation, fresh air (oxygen), sunshine, clean water, stress management, “live” foods verses “dead” foods, juicing, as well as getting quality rest and sleep.

 

I will now introduce the five components of the Healthy Cell Concept. I have drawn on two primary sources for this information and blended them, along with my own input, into what is presented here. Some of these concepts came from Albert E. Carter, a medical reporter and author, who wrote The Cancer Answer and The New Miracles of Rebound Exercise. Other concepts came from AIM International, a whole foods supplement company based in Nampa, ID that focuses on teaching healthy lifestyle principles, including their version of the healthy cell concept. Rather than just selling products they take responsibility to educate their customers. My version of The Healthy Cell Concept includes 1) Cell exercise, 2) Cell food, 3) Cell communication, 4) Cell environment, and, 5) Cell protection.

 

The first of these, CELL EXERCISE, must in some way involve every cell of your body without damaging any part of your body. There are many types of exercises, and I’ve tried my share of them over the years. I will only briefly mention one, walking, and then I’ll spend more time on what I believe are two of the world’s best man-made exercises – rebounding and whole body vibration!

 

Most people know that walking is a great exercise that can be done by almost anyone in some form or another. My suggestion is to start slowly, as with any new exercise program. The usual precautions apply to this as well as any other exercise program. Namely, if you have any health condition that may affect your ability to exercise safely, get an appropriate doctor’s approval before beginning. Be sure the doctor you discuss this with has personal experience and knowledge of this type of exercise. It is also advisable to wear comfortable clothing, warm your muscles up and then stretch prior to exercising. Be sure to drink adequate amounts of pure water before, during, and after strenuous exercise.

 

That said, I recommend that if you are new to a walking program, find a safe place to walk that is not polluted with vehicle exhaust or other contaminants. Begin by walking a measured mile at a comfortable pace and see how long it takes to complete it the first time. Then continue to walk that mile until you can do it in no more than 15 minutes. Then add a second mile. Walk those two miles until you can do them in no more than 30 minutes. Continue until you have worked up to a four-mile walk in less than one hour. Remember to breathe deeply while walking to oxygenate your cells and tissues and to expel toxins. Light hand and/or ankle weights can be added later to increase your workout, improve muscle tone, and to increase heart rate.

 

One of the best exercises I know of for the health of your cells is called rebound exercise. This is exercise is done on a mini-trampoline that is usually 40 inches in diameter. It can do more beneficial things for the cells of your body than most any other exercise without the harmful pounding effects of jogging. In fact, NASA did research that showed rebounding to be 68% more effective than jogging with only 1/8th to 1/12th the strike force, depending on the type of rebounder used. Ideally, it is best to place it outside on a patio or deck while exercising so as to get the benefits of the fresh air and sunshine during your workout. If this is not possible, open the windows if you can to at least get some fresh air.

 

There are two distinct types of rebounders. One is a piece of exercise equipment that is constructed of a heavy-duty frame, music instrument quality springs attached with bolts to the frame, and a “Permatron” mat. This is a high quality mat that won’t stretch out with use and should last ten to fifteen years or more. Some top-of-the-line rebounders will even fold in half for storage in a closet or under a bed, will fit in a trunk for trips, and can even be taken aboard planes. These quality units are priced from $270 to $350. The other type of rebounder I would classify as a toy. It is not meant for regular exercise and will break down with that kind of use. In addition, the mats are made of nylon or vinyl and will stretch with use. This can cause joint problems to develop in the ankle, knees and other joints. These units can be purchased for $20 to $60. For short-term use, just to see if this kind of exercise is suitable for you, these cheap models are o.k. but I wouldn’t use them for more than a month or two at most. Then give them to the kids to play on and get a good quality rebounder. Of course, if the kids end up actually exercising on the rebounder then they, too, should use the quality unit.

 

A rebounding workout can be aerobic for cardiovascular/respiratory conditioning. You can also do strength training, cross training, calisthenics, or lymphatic flushing. Actually, a good routine will combine several of these components. One of the most important components to understand is “G-force”. As you jump up and down on the rebounder you will naturally develop a rate of approximately 100 up and down movements per minute. At the top of your jump, you will experience weightlessness briefly, as your momentum changes from the up cycle to the down cycle. At the bottom of your bounce, as you reverse direction from the down cycle to the up cycle, the “G-forces” on your body will be increased. You can develop G-forces up to two to three times your body weight, which is enough to put your cells under a significant load, but not enough to do harm. This means that 100 times each minute you are exercising each cell of your body by the increased load they experience. Your cells have no choice but to respond by getting stronger!

 

The whole idea behind exercise is that cells (i.e. – muscle cells) must respond by getting stronger when subjected to increased forces/weights/loads. When you are rebounding this happens to every cell of your body – 100 times each minute. This obviously includes, but is not limited to, your muscles, your skin cells (making you look years younger than your age), your sub dermal cells (tissue below your outer skin), your organ cells (making them function better), your connective tissue cells (helping to prevent organs from sagging or drooping), your eye cells, your blood cells, and on and on. You may notice that you progress with this exercise faster than anything you’ve tried before. You’ll tone, firm and trim up all while having a lot of fun! Can you recall as a child ever getting yelled at for jumping on the bed or sofa? Did you stop right then or did you get yelled at more than once? If you were like most of us, this happened often. Why? Because it was fun. I also think we innately knew that it good for us. If our parents only understood this, they could have purchased a rebounder and saved us all a lot of trouble, right? J

 

The other major thing to know about rebounding is that it gets your lymphatic system pumping 30 to 40 times its normal rate and helps to enhance your immune system. You have several times more lymph fluid in your body than you have blood, but without a pump like the heart to move it. This is not a problem for very active people, but it can cause serious problems for those who are inactive or sedentary. The lymph vessels are similar to your veins. They have one-way valves in them so that as the lymph fluid moves upward through activity and muscle contraction these valves close as gravity pulls on the fluid after the contraction has ceased. In this way the lymph fluid can work its way up to the Thoracic duct in the chest to be dumped into the blood vascular system for removal. Rebound exercise, with the constant up and down motion and the regular, rhythmic muscle contractions, helps to get this fluid pumped out at a much higher rate.

 

So, why is this important? Because the lymph fluid is what carries the nutrients from the blood stream to the cells and also carries the cellular waste products that are not picked up by the blood vessels back to the blood stream for elimination. Dr. Alex Carrel’s research showed that cells were designed to virtually live forever if two conditions were met. First, the proper nutritional requirements for optimal health must be supplied, and, just as important, the waste products must be removed in a timely manner. Rebound exercise helps to enhance both of these processes. Waste products that remain in contact with cells can become an irritant. These irritants can sometimes cause a cell to mutate. The best way to avoid this is to get regular exercise. And rebound exercise is an excellent exercise for this purpose.

 

Rebound exercise is truly cellular exercise and also creates strength, endurance, flexibility, mental alertness and helps to relieve stress.

 

The other great cell exercise is Whole Body Vibration, also known as Acceleration Training. While you may not be going into space anytime soon, you can probably relate to those that do. Spending time in near zero-gravity causes bone mineral density to decrease and muscles to atrophy similar to when we age. The Russian Cosmonauts first used vibration for rehab and now you can enjoy the benefits as well. Vibrations stimulate the muscle-pump-effect and cause an increase in blood flow with an improvement of transport capacity for:

• Oxygen / Carbon dioxide
• Vitality components (micro nutrients)
• Energy components (macro nutrients)
• Derivates and waste (i.e. lactic acid)

Power Plate machines are the premium vibration devices powering a whole new dimension in wellness solutions for all ages, lifestyles and physical abilities. Power Plate uses the principles of Acceleration Training exercise TM to stimulate the body’s natural response to vibration. Waves of energy are transmitted throughout the body, activating muscle contractions between 25 and 50 times per second which lead to enhanced muscle strength, circulation and performance in as little as 15 minutes a day, three sessions per week.

 

Acceleration Training exercise on Power Plate machines offers a host of benefits, ranging from an immediate improvement in blood circulation, to a variety of measurable outcomes, such as increased muscle strength and flexibility, improved range-of-motion, decreased cellulite, increased bone density, reduced pain and soreness and faster recovery. Users enjoy a more immediate release of endorphins, the neurotransmitters associated with “runners high”. With proper use, Power Plate machines help accelerate weight loss, help stretch, strengthen, massage and relax the body. There is an abundance of research showing the many benefits of acceleration training at www.powerplate.com.

 

The simplest truths often meet the sternest resistance and are slowest in getting general acceptance.
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) Abolitionist

 

THE HEALTHY CELL CONCEPT II – Cell Food

BY Dr. Rowen S. Pfeifer

 

Next I will focus on Cell Food. What types of food nourish your cells and what foods clog up your cells and cost your body energy to attempt to clean up the mess? How can you beat disease? Why is juicing so important?

 

To start with, I’d like to define what “cell food” is in its simplest form. Cell food is Raw Food! This is the food that nature provides in as close to its’ natural state as possible. Essentially this is raw fruits, raw vegetables, and raw nuts and seeds. Let’s look at an example of the tremendous difference between raw food and cooked or processed food.

 

Imagine bringing into your home a bunch of carrots, complete with the green tops, just like they come from the garden. Take one carrot and cut the green top off. Then cut the top 3” off of the carrot and put it on the window sill in a glass of water. What will happen to the carrot? If you said it would begin to sprout and grow new life you are correct. Congratulations!

 

Now, what would happen if you just changed one thing in the process? Instead of putting the carrot in the water in its’ raw state, you would do one of the following: steam it, boil it, bake it, fry it, microwave it or broil it. Now place it in the glass of water in the window. What would happen in this case? Yes, it would sit there and rot! Why? In the first case the carrot was raw and all the life factors were present (vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids/proteins, fatty acids, phytonutrients, etc.) so it was able to generate new life because it was alive. In the second case there was no life left once it was cooked in any one of the above ways. You killed it!

 

The main thing that was destroyed was the enzymes. Without enzymes nothing happens. Enzymes are the life of the food. Enzymes begin to be destroyed at a temperature of 106 degrees and are totally destroyed (inactivated) at a temperature of 118 to 122 degrees (depending on the source). These enzymes will no longer promote life-giving functions when taken into the body. How difficult would it be to build a vital, vibrant, healthy cells from dead and devitalized (cooked) foods? Impossible! Try to build a million dollar mansion from junk yard scraps and see what you get. You can’t build a million dollar body with junk food scraps either. When you eat mostly cooked and processed and junk foods your body cannot perform its’ life sustaining functions and they actually add to the body’s toxic burden. This leaves you with a weak immune system and in a more debilitated state, therefore, more susceptible to disease. To use an analogy to an automobile – initially you may have just some “pinging and knocking” (frequent colds or flu, tiredness, foggy thinking, etc.), later on you may blow the engine or drop the transmission (develop cancer, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc.).

 

The human body is a living organism made up of 50 to 75 trillion cells that are constantly in the process of dying off and being replaced with new cells. These living cells require proper fuels and building materials in order to function optimally and reproduce themselves accurately. Even a slight alteration of the natural fuels and raw materials, which your cells need to be nourished, can lead to disease, and eventually, premature death. Fresh vegetable juices are one of the keys to improving your health if your body has already experienced some degree of breakdown. These juices are almost like injecting high quality nutrition directly into your blood stream without the energy cost of the digestive process. It takes a lot of energy to digest a meal and, even if you have an extremely healthy digestive tract you will only get up to 35% of the nutrients from that food into your blood stream. Most people in this country have very compromised digestive tracts as witnessed by the massive amounts of digestive aids sold (Tums, Rolaids, Tagamet, Pepsid AD and others are the top selling group of drugs in the U.S.) and therefore only absorb from 1% to 5% of the nutrients from the foods they eat. Contrast this to the 92% nutrient absorption when drinking vegetable juices without the high energy cost of the digestive process! Drinking freshly extracted vegetable juice is truly why many chronic degenerative diseases can be reversed. I recommend either the Champion or the Green Star juicers for the highest quality juices possible.

 

When we give our body the pure, nutrient dense, high quality, toxin-free food and drink it needs, its energy and vitality can then be focused on detoxification, healing and re-balancing your physiology and biochemistry so true healing can take place. I know it sounds quite amazing, but when conditions for healing are created, your miraculous self-healing body has the ability to prevent, and even reverse, virtually any disease process. This has been proven thousands of times with everything from cancer to diabetes, from arthritis to heart disease, from fibromyalgia to allergies.

 

I am, in fact, a case in point. My diet was horrible for the first 25 years of my life. I ate virtually no fruits or vegetables and, as a result, I was chronically constipated. Every trip to the bathroom was a 30 to 45 minute ordeal, many times with little to no results. In my late 20’s I began seeing blood in my stool. This went on for years and continued to worsen. The stress of returning to school (working full time while taking a full time pre-medical and Chiropractic curriculum) after being out of high school over 13 years, and then working to build a new practice after graduation from Chiropractic College, not only increased the bleeding, but I also began to see a lot of mucus in my stool as well. The chronic constipation eventually turned into explosive diarrhea. I was misdiagnosed with a yeast infection by a “holistic medical doctor” who prescribed Nystatin. I sat at home unable to do anything until I was so bad off my wife finally took me to the emergency room. I spent a total of seven days in the hospital with fluids and electrolytes being replaced via an intravenous line. I had been so out of it I didn’t realize how bad off I was. In reality, I was at death’s door. I wouldn’t have lasted long without getting to the hospital.

 

They did a colonoscopy and a biopsy. They then diagnosed me with Ulcerative Colitis (bleeding ulcers in the colon). Medically speaking, this is an incurable disease for which a lifetime sentence of taking prescription drugs is the only answer. Since I was so far gone by the time I was diagnosed, I felt forced to take the medications to save my life. They prescribed Prednisone, a very nasty drug with a long list of side effects, to get the inflammation under control. Then I was put on maintenance drugs like Azulfadine, Dipentum, and Asacol. The problems would always return when I went on these maintenance drugs. Finally, after more than a year of going the medical route, I chose to get serious about making the dietary and lifestyle changes I’d been researching for the last 15 years. The result was that the Ulcerative Colitis was gone in only two months! I had a couple of flare ups in the next few years when under greatly increased stresses of some kind, but I have been able to resolve these through dietary measures. It has now been approximately 20 years since I have been to a medical doctor or taken any drugs, prescription or over the counter. To state this in another way, I have not had even an aspirin or a cold or flu formula in the last 20 years! The incurable disease was cured by just changing my diet, the type of fuel I gave my body to operate on!

 

Some will think that this is ridiculous. It can’t be that easy. With all the “best minds” in medicine and research telling us that all these hundreds of diseases are incurable and that only their medicines and surgeries are able to help us and there is nothing else that we could do without their help. In fact, we are told that we are fools if we choose any approach other than theirs. We are told with arrogant certainty that the very things that will do the most to help us heal or prevent disease will not have any affect on us at all. My goal is to help as many people as possible learn that, not only are there other options available, but these options are far more effective, will help more problems and have little to no side effects. Why is this so hard to believe? Again, it seems too simple, especially to the medical mind. Food is too simple a concept for disease prevention and healing for those who rely so much on the “scientific” method. Truth, however, is always simple. Even the most complex processes can be boiled down to simple principles. The point is that there are some basic laws of biochemistry and physiology that work for us when we understand them and work with them, but that work against us when we don’t. For instance, gravity is a great force for keeping our homes, our cars, even ourselves on planet earth. This same gravity can work against us if we step off the top of a 50 foot tall building. Gravity works whether you believe in it or not, just like the laws that govern the functioning of our body.

 

The wellness community deals mainly with working with the healing powers of the body, whereas medical treatment, while many times quite heroic in life and death situations, only works against the body’s own healing powers. All medicines have “side effects” and none have any healing or repair properties. No drug has any nutritive value. No drug was ever intended by our Creator to have any place in the body of a human being. Albert Einstein was quoted as stating, “You can’t solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it in the first place”. This means we need a new paradigm to understand why we have some of the worst health statistics in a country where we spend more on medical care, have the best trained medical personnel, the best medical technology, and the best access to whatever we want. Does this make sense to you? It doesn’t to me either.

 

So what can we do? We can learn to take responsibility for our own health. Get back to the basics of health principles; eat at least 85% raw (live) fruits and vegetables and some raw nuts and seeds, drink freshly extracted vegetable juices and clean water and breathe clean air, engage in regular and appropriate exercise, have a positive attitude, be spiritually connected, keep your home and work environments as free of toxic chemicals as possible, read all you can to learn about and reinforce this new direction, get your spine and nerve system evaluated to be sure that your body is functioning at its peak and that your immune system is at its best, and finally, find a good health coach to help encourage you and guide you in your quest for abundant health. And remember, there are no real shortcuts. There are only detours that will lead you from your goal with false promises. Simply follow the basics of generating health and health will follow – you reap what you sow. Start sowing wisely.

 

THE HEALTHY CELL CONCEPT III – Cell Communication

BY Dr. Rowen S. Pfeifer

 

In this third article on the Healthy Cell Concept I will discuss how cells communicate with one another. This will be a rather short article since the goal here is to get a basic understanding of the importance of a healthy lifestyle rather than to get into the technical aspects of human biochemistry and physiology. The cells of the body communicate in at least two key ways – through the nerve system and through the hormonal system.

 

I have discussed the importance of spinal/nerve system health in an article entitled The Doctor of the Future – Today so I refer you to that article to learn more about why Chiropractic can be vital to proper nerve health, and therefore, proper cell communication, since the nerve system coordinates and controls all function in the body. All cells of the body communicate with each other through the nerve system. If interference to the proper communication of the nerve signal exists then poor communication will be the result. Chiropractors remove this interference. In addition, it is important that the nerves are not poisoned with toxins from our diet or our environment. A healthy diet and proper detoxification is critical to high level nerve function including proper production of and transmission of neurotransmitters.

 

Coincident with the communication signals carried to the cells by the nerve system is the hormonal system. Hormones are secreted from glands in our body and produce generally slower acting and longer lasting effects than the nerve system. Hormones are produced and sent out from a number of different glands throughout our body, including the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, pineal gland, thyroid gland, parathyroid glands, adrenal glands, kidneys, testes, ovaries, etc. All of these glands need to interact in a coordinated and complex symphony to provide the proper balance and harmony to the daily functioning of the body.

 

In the case of the kidneys, for example, a poor diet can lead to the inability of the cells of the body to properly respond to the hormone, insulin, which results in type II diabetes. Conversely, when a healthy diet and lifestyle is put into place balance can be restored and the healing result is reversal of the entity called diabetes. I trust that it appears obvious by now that a body that is deficient in some or many of the needed nutrients or has some degree of toxicity will have difficulty not only producing some hormones (lack of raw materials) but could also have problems properly affecting the target tissues if they are toxic.

 

We reap what we sow. Why not learn how to sow seeds of health in order to reap a harvest of health?

 

THE HEALTHY CELL CONCEPT IV – Cell Environment

BY Dr. Rowen S. Pfeifer

 

I will now deal with the environment around the cells of your body – mostly water. Your body is composed of between 50 and 75 trillion cells, the building blocks of your body. If you want to be healthy, the only way to accomplish this is to be certain that your cells are healthy.

 

Your cells have a variety of requirements for abundant health. These include Vitamins, Minerals, clean Water, pure Air, Amino Acids (protein), Fatty Acids, Phytonutrients, Enzymes, and Carbohydrates (glucose). Many of these needs are met for those that eat a plant based, whole food diet with 75 to 85% of that food raw along with several 8 ounce glasses of freshly prepared vegetable juice per day. When you also exercise regularly (i.e. – rebound or Power Plate exercise) you pump larger quantities of oxygen to your tissues and cells while you simultaneously flush toxins away from your cells for elimination from your body. 

 

Your cell environment is where your cells live and do their work. This is their “neighborhood”. Clean water is absolutely vital to the health of your cells. Roughly 40% to 45% of the water in your body is inside of your cells (intracellular fluid – protoplasm and cytoplasm).The other 55% to 60% of your total body water is outside your cells (extracellular fluid – interstitial or lymph fluid and blood). This water medium is how your cells get nutrition in and get waste products out, it dilutes toxins and transports them out of your body, transports oxygen and hormones, lubricates your digestive tract, helps regulate your body temperature, cushions your joints, acts as a universal solvent, and so on. This seemingly simple substance is more important to your life than all the other nutrients combined, with the possible exception of oxygen (which is transported by your blood – which is over 90% water!). Even your bones are 20% water.

 

The problem is the quality and quantity of the water we consume. It is a sad fact that many people in this country drink little to no water on any given day. In addition, many of the fluids that are consumed actually remove water from your body (coffee, tea, soft drinks, etc. actually have a diuretic effect on your body). Most of us are aware that we should be drinking more water. There are several popular formulas for how much water to drink.  One suggestion is to drink eight to ten glasses of water per day (eight ounces each). Another formula is to drink half your body weight in ounces per day. The point is that we need to drink a lot more water, usually a lot more than we think is possible, especially for those who are not used to drinking plain water. I suggest you work on this until you can easily drink the amount of water you need for excellent health – it will pay you huge dividends probably far beyond what you could expect or imagine. Besides drinking two to three 8 ounce glasses of freshly extracted vegetable juice each day, try to drink at least 90% of the fluid you consume in the form of pure water to obtain the myriad of life-giving benefits it provides.

 

Tap water and filtered water can contain undesirable substances and compounds like chlorine, fluoride, trihalomethanes, inorganic minerals (powdered rock minerals), etc. that you don’t want in your body. There are many books written discussing the harm these chemicals can do so I will just touch on a few important points. Chlorine is added to the water at the treatment plants to kill bacteria that would otherwise build up in the water in it’s’ journey from the municipal water plant to your home. This is fine and quite necessary. However, once it is at your home you need to take measures to remove it because it is a highly reactive chemical that can combine with other elements to create a number of cancer causing compounds. Chlorine can be absorbed through your skin and also inhaled while taking a bath or shower. A good whole house carbon filtration system will remove chlorine and many other impurities and is highly recommended. Fluoride is another toxic chemical put in many water supplies. This is actually a mass drugging program with no ability to monitor the amounts ingested by each individual. There is a wide difference in the amount of water consumed by one person to another. It is even more serious with small children and infants. In fact, a new medical recommendation says mothers should not prepare infant formulas with fluoridated tap water due to the damage it can do to their teeth. Unfortunately, regular carbon filters do not remove fluoride. Therefore I recommend distilling all the water you consume. Distillation produces the purest water possible. This pure water is ideal for the first few months of a new diet change since it helps to dissolve toxins and pull them out of your body but it is a bit too aggressive for long-term use. There are a number of products that can be used to add back quality minerals and improve the pH of the water. WaterMax from Hallelujah Acres or X2O available from www.wellcity.com.

 

I recommend purchasing your own distiller since the distilled water you buy in the stores comes in very cheap plastic containers that can leach these plastics into the water when exposed to fluorescent light or sunlight. These plastics are known to be carcinogenic (cancer causing). A decent distiller can be purchased for as little as $129.00. A whole house carbon filter system can cost from $400.00 to $650.00 depending on quality and installation. When you distill your own water (for just pennies per gallon) you know that what you are getting is fresh and you can feel confident you are doing the best you can for yourself and your family.

 

It is a medically and scientifically proven fact that the quality of your life and health depends on the quality of the water you put into your body. Interestingly, the best water can be obtained from eating your fruits and vegetables. These are high water content foods (70% to 97%) and they contain the highest quality water available. For most of us this will not supply all the water we need so we will need to supplement with additional pure, distilled water. Use your distilled water for all your drinking, cooking and other consumption needs. Remember, the more pure the water you consume, the more toxins it will be able to flush out of your body which will help to protect you from a variety of illnesses and diseases.

 

THE HEALTHY CELL CONCEPT V – Cell Protection

BY Dr. Rowen S. Pfeifer

 

Every second of every day there is an unseen war that is raging inside your body on a microscopic level. It is occurring between molecules, organelles, cells, bacteria, viruses, and other minute organisms. In this war are swarms of potential pathogenic (disease-causing) organisms waiting to break through your outer defenses to get their foothold established. “Cellular soldiers” are called on if these outer defenses are breached. The combination of your outer defenses and your “cellular soldiers” make up your immune system. This very complex and diverse collection of organs, tissues and cells amount to only about two pounds of your entire body weight but this system is extremely critical to your ongoing health.

 

There are a variety of “opportunistic” germs that seek to inhabit our bodies. These are generally known as parasites and include viruses, bacteria, fungi (mold and yeast), protozoa, and parasitic worms. While we do need an abundance of so-called friendly bacteria (ProBiotics) in our colon, most people have only ½ pound rather than the three pounds that we should have. These friendly bacteria also function as a second immune system and help keep pathogenic bacteria and yeasts under control.

 

The day-to-day lifestyle choices we make will ultimately either strengthen or weaken our immune system. These choices either keep our internal environment clean and healthy or they tend to build up the toxins, waste products and debris that these organisms feed on. The idea is to keep our “terrain” (body tissues) clean and healthy so there is no “food” (decaying matter) in your body that these invaders see as gourmet fare. Remember, they can only feed on waste products like refined white sugar and flour and incompletely digested/putrefied animal products, chemicals and additives from our diets and environment, etc. Bacteria cannot proliferate or be cultured on healthy tissue; they need rotting, decaying food sources to flourish. In other words, the type of “terrain” we provide either creates conditions favorable to the growth and production of these organisms or it provides conditions that are unfavorable for their growth. It is your choice, which would you prefer?

 

There are factors that can damage your immune system and there are other factors that will strengthen and enhance your immune system function. We need to do our best to keep the avoidable challenges from entering our bodies. These include bacteria or fungi from getting into wounds by properly cleaning the wounds as soon as possible. Clean water is a must to avoid water-born parasites. Other challenges include physical stresses such as extreme hot or cold, exertion to exhaustion, shock, severe emotional or mental stresses, etc.

 

There are many medical treatments and medications that can also weaken your immune system. Anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapy) and x-rays are very damaging to the immune system. In fact, chemotherapy can be so damaging that more cancer patients die from infections than die from the spread of the cancer itself. Cortisone and other steroid-type drugs also weaken the immune system. Other commonly used medications that can depress or shut down the immune system include aspirin and aspirin-like pain killers, cortisol skin creams, antihistamines, cold and flu remedies, and decongestants. For the record, there is no medication that will kill the flu virus; it must be destroyed by the immune system. The best way to avoid or prevent the flu is not a flu shot, it is keeping your immune system healthy and strong so it can do its job and destroy the virus like it was designed to do.

 

Many of the so-called foods most people eat daily also work against the proper function of the immune system. Things like coffee, tea, soft drinks, and alcohol contain chemicals that interfere with the function of all the cells of your body, including the cells of your immune system. Foods containing refined white sugar and white flour are also immune system suppressants. There is approximately 10 teaspoons of white sugar in a single can of soda. This is enough sugar to depress immune system function by 33% for the rest of the day. That is, of course, only the tip of the ice burg when considering the amount of sugar consumed daily by most people. Foods with artificial sweeteners are even worse. These chemical sweeteners (i.e. – Equal, aspartame) do long term damage to the cells of the brain and can lead to serious chronic degenerative diseases.

 

Is there anything that we can do to protect the health and function of our body and our immune system? Actually there are things that can be done to prevent the destruction of the cells of our body and to restore peak efficiency to our immune system. It just so happens that these are the same basic strategies that will restore and or maintain total body health. These include some of the basics already covered: the proper type and amounts of exercise, clean air and water, a diet high in organic fruits and vegetables (~ 75 to 85% raw), and freshly made vegetable juices. Although I don’t entirely agree with the following concept, it illustrates well the importance of regular exercise. It goes like this:

 

Option one – eating the Standard American Diet along with a great exercise program

Option two – eating an extremely healthy diet without any regular exercise program

 

The idea was that you would be better off if you did not eat well but exercised regularly rather than eating healthy without exercising. Again, I don’t entirely agree with this, but I do agree that exercise is vitally important to your overall health. My question is why you would put in all the time and effort necessary in an exercise program without learning how to properly nourish the cells of your body for the best results in the minimal amount of time. There is a concept called “the limitations of matter”. You could exercise perfectly for years but if your diet has a minimum of necessary nutrients and is high in processed/trans fats, high in white sugar and flour products, you drink coffee or tea and soft drinks rather than water, you eat animal proteins, and your food is full of chemicals, pesticides, colorings, flavorings, additives, and preservatives your cells cannot be as healthy as they should be and breakdown will occur followed by dis-ease (the feeling that something is wrong and minor symptoms occur) and then outright disease. It would be far better to exercise and eat a healthy diet to maximize your overall health.

 

High-level nutrition is essential to building a healthy immune system. This means eating only those foods that build up, restore, and repair body tissues. This is what will protect your cells from damage and allow them to function at their best. An abundance of freshly prepared vegetable juices are wonderful for building an awesome immune system and protecting your cells. Distilled water will also help you keep your cells healthy by flushing toxins out and purifying your system.

 

This all ties in nicely together when considering how to keep your body healthy by keeping your cells healthy. Basically, everything that keeps your cells healthy also helps prevent and reverse disease. Yes! The “causes of health” are known, and when followed, will result in a life of abundant life and vitality.

 

Dr. Rowen S. Pfeifer graduated with honors (cum laude) from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, IA in 1987.  Dr Pfeifer has been an avid student of health, diet and lifestyle principles since 1974 and has been teaching health classes and seminars, writing articles, and doing radio and television interviews for over 18 years. He lives in Nashville, TN where he resides with his wife, Patty, and their two children, Lindsey (age 21) and Jonathan (age 15). For more information, you can contact Dr. Pfeifer by calling 615_714_1877 or by email at drrowen@livinghealthchiro.com or visit www.wellcity.com.

 

Normal or Common?

By Dr. Rowen S. Pfeifer

 

How many times do we hear people brush off their ailments and pains by saying, “What do you expect, I am getting older, and anyway, everybody my age has similar problems?”

 

This example illustrates the thinking of most people in the USA. We resign ourselves to the aches and pains, to taking medications and learning to live with it. Why do we think that disease and pain is normal? Why do we so easily give up the things we love to do? It really pains me to hear my patients say, “Oh, I can’t do that anymore!” Or they say, “I guess it is just that I am getting older”. Age is not a cause of disease! Sure, most of our friends and family suffer the same issues. But does that mean its normal? I say an emphatic, NO! It is definitely quite common, but absolutely not normal. Normal is living into our 80’s, 90’s and even beyond 100 with a strong body and a sound mind. Common is, well, just look around.

 

This scenario is all too prevalent in our society today. The good news is that we have a very large measure of control over our environment and, therefore, our health. Over 20 years ago I had a personal health challenge. The diet I was on for my first quarter century was horrible. I was chronically and severely constipated from as young as I can remember. Eventually I began having a lot of blood and mucus in my stools. I was literally at deaths door at one point and was in the hospital for a total of seven days for intravenous fluid and electrolyte replacement. They did a colonoscopy and I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis (bleeding ulcers in my colon/large intestine). Medically speaking this is an incurable disease and I was told I would have to be on medication for the rest of my life. They put me on numerous medications and I knew enough to know I didn’t want to be on these medications for the rest of my life. After a year or so of medical treatment and after much prayer I decided to quit the drugs (I was already tapered off of the Prednisone) and do distilled water fasting for 6 days to let my colon rest and heal awhile. I followed this with eating an abundance of live, raw fruits and vegetables and lots of freshly made, great tasting vegetable juices.

 

Within two months my symptoms were gone! I have not taken any drugs or medications in over 20 years, not even an aspirin, and at age 60 I’m very physically active and feeling great! I still like in-line and ice skating, snow and water skiing, racquetball, playing guitar and drums, training for 5K’s and working out with weights and on my rebounder (mini-trampoline).

 

The patient says, “Doctor, my right knee has been killing me. What’s wrong?” Then the doctor says, “I can give you some pain medication when it gets too bad, but other than that, you are going to have to learn to live with the pain. After all, you are 87 years old you know. What do you expect?” After a moment of reflection the patient replies, “But doctor, my left knee is 87 years old too and it never bothers me at all! If age was the problem wouldn’t it cause me pain as well?” Isn’t this the attitude we should have? Shouldn’t we be able to water ski at age 87 if we want to? We should enjoy life and be productive until the day we go on to be with the Lord and not just watch life from the sidelines. We should be up playing with our great grandkids – actively involved in their lives.

 

Let’s begin to make the daily choices that will lead to a future worth living. We all understand the need to plan for our financial future. The same goes for our health. We must plan for a healthy future. All it takes the discipline to make simple choices daily to ensure lasting health. Don’t wake up one morning wondering how you ended up in such bad shape. Commit to living a long and fruitful life! Take the steps necessary to make it happen.

 

We can help you at www.wellcity.com. Contact me through the website or I can be reached at 615-714-1877. You can also email me atdrrowen@livinghealthchiro.com. The best time to start is now!

 

Dr. Rowen S. Pfeifer graduated with honors (cum laude) from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, IA in 1987.  Dr Pfeifer has been an avid student of health, diet and lifestyle principles since 1974 and has been teaching health classes and seminars, writing articles, and doing radio and television interviews for over 18 years. He lives in Nashville, TN where he resides with his wife, Patty, and their two children, Lindsey (age 21) and Jonathan (age 15).

 

Commentary on “The Sower and the Seed”

 

By Dr. Rowen S. Pfeifer

 

This parable talks about four (4) different types of soil that seed can be planted in and the results obtained based on the type of soil in which they were planted.

 

When we are exposed to the truth we have one of these four basic “soils” that will determine what we get from it and whether or not it will be effectual in our lives. Let’s take a closer look. I have taken the liberty of combining the parable and the explanation so that the first verse in each paragraph is the initial part of the parable and the bolded part of each paragraph is the explanation Jesus gave to His disciples regarding each section of the parable.

 5"The sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled under foot and the birds of the air ate it up.  11"Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God.  12"Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.

6"Other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.  13"Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.

 7"Other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out.  14"The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.

 8"Other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great." As He said these things, He would call out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." 15"But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.

 10And He said, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, so that SEEING THEY MAY NOT SEE, AND HEARING THEY MAY NOT UNDERSTAND.

Another way to look at this is to consider how some people react when they get excited about learning some new truth and then walk away and “count the cost”. They begin to think about how accepting this truth would mandate that they make changes in the way they live or that they would have to give something up or do something they think they would not like – and they give up on the truth before they even get started. They decide that the price is too high. What they fail to consider is the price down the road – 20, 40 or more years; that the price right now can be measured in ounces but the price later on will be measured in tons!

 

Let’s look at a few examples of how this applies to some real life situations.

First, let’s look at the area of salvation. Many come to the knowledge of what it takes to be saved and turn their lives over to the Lord and are initially very excited about the prospect of living for the Lord. However, when a temptation comes along or once this individual thinks about all the ways they would have to change their life or of the things they would have to give up they slip away and end up back where they were before the truth interrupted them.

Another area is one I’ve spent most of my life studying; the areas of nutrition, diet, lifestyle and health issues. I have seen many people over the years that have come to the truth of Biblically-based wellness principles. Some have made the changes and have benefited by getting miraculous results. Others who have been exposed to the truth have walked a short distance along the path of this truth and, for one of the reasons stated in the parable above, turned away and ended up dying or living their remaining days suffering with the consequences of the disease or diseases they suffered with, as well as the negative effects of the medications they have agreed to take. When they stopped to “count the cost” they only counted the immediate cost – the foods they’d have to eat or those they’d have to give up or the fact that they must add exercise to their daily routine, etc., etc. The cost they often forget to count is the great variety of additional diseases and complications that will likely develop in the ensuing years if they don’t make the recommended changes. Diseases like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, arthritis (osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, degenerative arthritis, etc.), fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, sleep disorders, overweight or obesity issues, addictions, colitis, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, as well as a never ending stream of doctor’s office visits and the effects of all the medications that will be prescribed.

In another Scripture, Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus states, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”  (NASU) The obvious point in this verse is that Jesus tells us that there will only be a few who find the narrow way to life. The reverse must also be true, that many will find the broad path to destruction. My belief is that this also applies to all areas of life. I maintain that if you are on the path that is crowded with the majority of the rest of the population – you are on the wrong path – the path that leads to destruction. Most people follow the path of least resistance or just follow what they see everyone else do without really considering where they are headed. Unfortunately many people do not take the time to thoughtfully consider what they believe; they simply do what everyone else is doing. Your belief system about something is called a paradigm. The best description of a paradigm I have ever found is this; it is what you think about something before you think about it. Another way to say this is that it is what you perceive a thing to be before you examine it for yourself.

What this means is that many people have very strongly held beliefs about a variety of things of which they know very little. When I used to be in sales they taught us that there were three things we should never discuss while on sales calls; sex, religion and politics. Not talking about sex is obvious since some people can get very crude or tell off-color jokes. But I think the other two are on the list for a different reason. From my experience most people’s understanding in the area of religion and politics is so shallow or limited, but so fervent, that they are unable to have a calm, rational discussion about these subjects. Few people have any depth of knowledge about their spiritual beliefs beyond what they hear from their preacher on Sundays. When someone disagrees with their beliefs, since their knowledge is rather shallow, they tend to get angry since they lack the ability to rationally defend their position and can resort to volume to make their point rather than being able to have an uplifting discussion that could benefit both. The same with politics; no matter how much any of us try to keep up with what’s going on in the world of politics there is probably a lot we don’t know that happens behind the scenes yet we tend to judge every politician and every decision they make, mostly to make ourselves feel smarter or better about ourselves.

Then there is the area of what has been known as the healthcare arena, which in reality, is the sickness or disease care arena. Medical care in this country is very good when it comes to traumatic, emergency or acute care. However, it is pitifully inadequate when it comes to keeping people healthy or when dealing with chronic degenerative diseases. We seem to have come to a point in this country where anything and everything that is done by a medical doctor and every new drug that comes out on the market is considered some miraculous boon to mankind. This has become our paradigm. Medical doctors and their associations, the pharmaceutical industry, and the federal government in the form of the FDA, the CDC and the FTC have their own paradigm, that only they have what we need to be healthy and nothing anyone else has to offer is worth even a passing thought. These groups all believe and legislate that only toxic chemicals called prescription drugs can cure disease and that no food or whole food supplement can do anything to help a body heal, repair, detoxify or improve the health of an individual. This is an area where the truth has become the lie and the lie is now masquerading as the truth. Let’s think about this for a moment. We all know how toxic chemotherapy drugs are. What do you think would happen if a healthy person took chemotherapy drugs? If you said it would make them very, very ill you’d be correct. So now we’re supposed to believe that if we take this same chemotherapy drug that made a healthy person deathly ill, that just by giving it to a very sick person that somehow they will miraculously get well – someone so sick that they developed cancer! How could this possibly help them healthy and well again?

There are many articles published in reputable medical journals and, when taken as a whole, show that the practice of medicine, no matter how dedicated and sincere the intentions of the individual medical doctor, is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. One problem is that the truth in this area is so carefully hidden. Medical schools are structured to almost brainwash the students for the many years it takes to complete their medical school education, internships and residencies. A very narrow paradigm is taught as gospel and anything diverging even slightly from that paradigm is considered heresy. In the rare event that a medical doctor allows the blinders to slip a little, and a bit of truth seeps in, one of two things can happen; most of the time they slam the blinders back on tighter than ever so nothing so horrible can ever happen again. Why would a dedicated medical doctor who portends to be in practice to help people not want to see the truth? One reason may be because of the sanctions on the profession. Under the threat of heavy fines, jail time, loss of their medial license and/or loss of hospital privileges they cave in to the pressure and pretend the problems don’t exist; problems like drug toxicity, the knowledge that they are only dealing with symptoms rather than getting to the cause of the problem, or that the treatments they do today cause the problems of tomorrow. On very rare occasions the truth will seep in to an individual who has the honesty, the integrity, the conviction and the courage to stand up for what is right. Some will even speak out against the problems in the profession and encourage people to work with the God-given healing powers in their body to correct the cause and be healed from all manner of “incurable” diseases.

God takes no pleasure in someone who ‘shrinks back’ once they have been exposed to the truth! God is no respecter of cowardly doctors who will not stand up for what is right and is in the best interest of their patients. And I mean from the perspective of truth – not just bowing to the party line and protecting their coveted turf and position. A Christian medical doctor answers to a higher power and needs to stand up for what is right, for what is best for the patients, and against the controlling sanctions of the medical associations, and any unnecessary and/or harmful treatments, especially when there are other less toxic, less invasive and less expensive ways to deal with the condition. This falls right in line with the hierarchy the medical profession advocates: start with the least invasive treatments and move towards the more invasive treatments – if and when necessary. The only problem with this is their very narrow vision of what should be included in this hierarchy. They all but totally ignore nutrition, lifestyle factors, Chiropractic, Naturopathy, Homeopathy and other wellness modalities. Since they claim that Hippocrates is the Father of Modern Medicine they would do well to review some of his major position statements.

The most important principle Hippocrates taught was, “First do no harm”! How can a profession whose daily practice of their art results in their being the leading cause of death in the United States have the audacity to claim Hippocrates as their Father? There are two other significant quotes from Hippocrates that the medical profession would do well to address; “Look well to the spine for the cause of disease”, and “Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food”. The first speaks to correcting spinal joint alignment issues that can affect the ability of the brain and nerve system to properly communicate with and control the function of all the organs, glands, tissues and cells of the body. The second deals with enhancing the healing properties of the body by working with the immune system by providing the proper nutrients to the body and how a plant based, whole food diet provides everything the body needs to be healthy. For example, science has discovered thousands of phytonutrients (plant nutrients) in foods like broccoli and cauliflower that actually prevent and reverse cancer, but how much have you heard about the kinds of healing properties these foods have?

We began by discussing the parable of the sower and the seed. It seems obvious to most that the Scripture verse that says, “You reap what you sow” is true in any area of life. It is also true in the area of our physical health. I urge you to begin to sow seeds of good health now so that you will reap a harvest of good health in the years to come.

Dr. Rowen S. Pfeifer graduated with honors (cum laude) from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, IA in 1987.  Dr Pfeifer has been an avid student of health, diet and lifestyle principles since 1974 and has been teaching health classes and seminars, writing articles, and doing radio and television interviews for over 18 years. He lives in Nashville, TN where he resides with his wife, Patty, and their two children, Lindsey (age 21) and Jonathan (age 15). For more information, you can contact Dr. Pfeifer by calling 615_714_1877 or by email at drrowen@livinghealthchiro.com or visit www.wellcity.com.

Dr. Rowen S. Pfeifer

1209 Bluffglen Court

Cane Ridge, TN 37013

615-714-1877

www.wellcity.net

drrowen@livinghealthchiro.com