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The higher your Total Life Stress, the higher the number of symptoms.

SYMPTOM INDEX

When people are chronically ill, they often have other symptoms. Do you have any of the following? Please check only those that you have now or recently.

___	Depressed mood
___	Loss of interest or pleasure in things you used to enjoy
___	Significant weight change (loss or gain)
___	Frequent eating between meals
___	Insomnia
___	Snoring
___	Sleepwalking
___	Hypersomnia
___	Agitation
___	Sluggishness, slow to function
___	Fatigue, low energy, or feeling tired all of the time
___	Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
___	Difficulty concentrating, thinking, and remembering
___	Indecisiveness
___	Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide
___	Suicide attempts
___	Nervous exhaustion
___	Worrying excessively or being anxious
___	Frequent crying
___	Being extremely shy or sensitive
___	Lumps or swelling in your neck
___	Blurring of vision
___	Seeing double
___	Seeing colored halos around lights
___	Pains or itching around the eyes
___	Excess blinking or watering of the eyes
___	Loss of vision
___	Difficulty hearing
___	Earache
___	Running ear
___	Buzzing or other noises in the ears
___	Motion sickness
___	Teeth or gum problems
___	Sore or sensitive tongue
___	Change in sense of taste
___	Nose stuffed up
___	Runny nose
___	Sneezing spells
___	Frequent head colds
___	Bleeding from the nose
___	Sore throat even without a cold
___	Enlarged tonsils
___	Hoarse voice even without a cold
___	Difficulty or pain in swallowing
___	Wheezing or difficulty breathing
___	Coughing spells
___	Coughing up a lot of phlegm
___	Coughing up blood
___	Chest colds more than once a month
___	High blood pressure
___	Low blood pressure
___	Heart trouble
___	Thumping or racing heart
___	Pain or tightness in the chest
___	Shortness of breath
___	Heartburn
___	Feeling bloated
___	Excess belching
___	Discomfort in the pit of your stomach
___	Nausea
___	Vomiting blood
___	Peptic ulcer
___	Change in appetite
___	Digestive problems
___	Excessive hunger
___	Getting up frequently at night to urinate
___	Urinating more than 5-6 times a day
___	Unable to control your urine
___	Burning or pains when you urinate
___	Black, brown, or bloody urine
___	Difficulty starting your urine
___	Constant urge to urinate
___	Constipation
___	Diarrhea
___	Black or bloody bowel movement
___	Grey bowel movement
___	Pain when you move your bowels
___	Bleeding from your rectum
___	Stomach pains which double you up
___	Frequent stomach trouble
___	Intestinal worms
___	Hemorrhoids
___	Yellow jaundice
___	Biting your nails
___	Stuttering or stammering
___	Any kind of problem with your genital or sexual organs
___	Sexual problems
___	Hernia or rupture
___	Kidney or bladder disease
___	Stiff or painful muscles or joints
___	Swelling joints
___	Pain in your back or shoulders
___	Painful feet
___	Swelling in your armpits or groin
___	Trouble with swollen feet or ankles
___	Cramps in your legs at night or with walking
___	Itching or burning skin
___	Rash or pimples
___	Excess bleeding from a small cut
___	Easy burning skin
___	Dizziness or light headedness
___	Feeling faint or fainting
___	Numbness in any part of your body
___	Cold hands or feet even in hot weather
___	Paralysis
___	Blacking out
___	Fits, convulsions, or epilepsy
___	Change in your handwriting
___	Tendency to shake or tremble
___	Tendency to be too hot or too cold
___	Sweating more than usual
___	Hot flashes
___	Being short of breath with minimal effort
___	Failure to get adequate exercise
___	Being overweight
___	Being underweight
___	Having lost more than half of your teeth
___	Bleeding gums
___	Badly coated tongue
___	A lot of small accidents or injuries
___	Varicose veins
___	Headaches
___	Other aches and pains
___	Feeling pessimistic or hopeless
___	Have had any kind of surgery within the past year
___	Being upset easily by criticism
___	Having little annoyances get on your nerves and make you angry
___	Getting angry easily
___	Getting nervous around strangers
___	Feeling lonely
___	Having difficulty relaxing
___	Being troubled by frightening dreams or thoughts
___	Being disturbed by work or family problems
___	Wishing that you could get psychological or psychiatric help
___	Being tense or jittery
___	Being easily upset
___	Being in low spirits
___	Being in very low spirits
___	Believing that your life is out of your hands and controlled by external forces
___	Feeling that life is empty, filled with despair
___	Having no goals or aims at all
___	Having failed to make progress towards your life goals
___	Feeling that you are completely bound by factors outside yourself
___	Feeling sad, blue, or down in the dumps
___	Feeling slowed down or restless and unable to sit still
___	Frequent illness
___	Being confined to bed by illness

For men only:

___	Having a urine stream that’s very weak or very slow
___	Having prostate trouble
___	Having unusual burning or discharge from your penis
___	Having swelling or lumps in your testicles
___	Having your testicles painful
___	Having trouble getting erections (getting hard)

For women only:

___	Having trouble with your menstrual period
___	Bleeding between your periods
___	Having heavy bleeding with your periods
___	Getting bloated or irritable before your periods
___	Taking birth control pills (in the last year)
___	Having lumps in your breasts
___	Having excess discharge from your vagina
___	Feeling weak or sick with your periods
___	Having to lie down when your periods start
___	Feeling tense and jumpy with your periods
___	Having constant hot flashes and sweats
___	Have had a hysterectomy or on hormonal replacement

TOTAL SYMPTOMS _______

If you have more than ten symptoms, the time has come to make some intelligent decisions about your lifestyle! And if you have over twenty symptoms, you may well already have significant maladaptation or illnesses!

Even without significant symptoms, it is wise to consider by age 30 some tests that might help you avoid major illnesses later:

 Complete blood count—red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, etc.

 Chem panel—electrolytes, cholesterol, liver, and kidney functions, etc.

 Homocysteine—this should be 7.5 or LESS. Anything higher increases risk of heart attack, stroke, and cancer.

 Cardiac calcium index—the simplest, safest, least expensive way to be sure you are not beginning the process of coronary arteriosclerosis

Susan Kobasa has been a major contributor to our understanding of hardiness—our resilience or tolerance of life stressors. Since so many people are not optimally healthy and suffer the ravages of stress, it is important to look at the foundation of a healthy life. Clinically, about 40% of Americans are depressed and a similar number are not truly happy—they have what I call a subclinical depressive miasma. In addition to the genes we receive from our parents, there is a social environment that is critical for health. Obviously, there are essentials such as air, water, food, clothing, and shelter. Without those, nothing else is even worth considering. The next most essential is nurturing, which should begin with conception. Therein begins the problem for the 40% of individuals who are conceived out of wedlock. Children of unwed mothers are much more likely to be born prematurely, have lower birth weight, and have many times more emotional and physical problems than children born to committed parents. In the 70s, Ann Landers wrote a column in which she reported that of the 10,000 individuals who had written her, 70% said that they wished they had never had children! This led my wife and me to write To Parent or Not? This implies that a huge percentage of parents are too stressed themselves to provide adequate nurturing to their offspring.

The minimum requirements for providing a child the essential nurturing:

 A committed relationship of both parents who want a child

 Optimal health habits while pregnant

 A healthy delivery without spinal or general anesthesia

 A nurturing home for at least the first seven years of life

Absence of any one of these situations leads to severe deficiency in oxytocin production, which is a problem in:

 ADHD

 Autism

 Anxiety

 Depression

 Addiction

 Borderline personality

 Inadequate personality

 Schizophrenia

There are of course many factors, but the outstanding finding in every one of these emotional/mental disorders is that oxytocin is deficient. And of course, major trauma at any age may block a previously healthy person’s production of oxytocin, leading to PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In fact, I consider virtually all depression and significant anxiety to be post stress! Interestingly, stimulation of the Ring of Air also raises oxytocin, the bonding hormone which is deficient in ADHD, Autism, Depression, Addiction, and even in Schizophrenia!

From a physical point of view, disorders/diseases fall into several diagnosable categories:

 Addiction

 Autoimmune

 Benign tumor

 Biochemical/metabolic

 Degenerative

 Electrical

 Endocrine

 Hematologic

 Hereditary/congenital

 Immunological

 Infectious—amoebic, bacterial, fungal, protozoan, viral

 Inflammatory

 Psychological: emotional, mental/spiritual

 Malignant tumor

 Parasitic

 Surgical

 Traumatic

 Vascular

Almost all of these have some inflammatory component and some biochemical abnormality as well as a variety of immunological disorders.

And these problems seem to be associated with significant physical locations related to the psychological/spiritual issues of the seven chakras of the body:

 First—All parts of the legs. Family issues

 Second—Low back (bottom of third lumbar spine through sacrum), abdomen from belly button down and pelvis. Sexuality, finances, and security

 Third—From the belly button up to the rib cage (1st through 3rd lumbar vertebrae); upper abdomen. Self-esteem and responsibility

 Fourth—Chest, heart, lungs, breasts; (1st through 12th thoracic vertebrae). Love and judgment

 Fifth—Mouth, neck, shoulders, arms and hands; (1st through 7th cervical vertebrae). Will power—ability to express needs and desires

 Sixth—Brain, eyes, ears, nose, mind. Reason and logic

 Seventh—Spirituality, soul, God

In other words, stress not only initiates a variety of biochemical abnormalities, but specific parts of the body and organs are also affected when the anxiety, anger, guilt, or depression are related to the specific issues of the chakras! The stress initiates inflammation in a specific organ which cascades into many biochemical dysfunctions and the wide variety of possible diseases. Now, the “physical” cause of disease does not in any way mean that there is not an underlying stress issue. In general, some current life stress elicits anger, guilt, anxiety, or depression, and it reminds you at a deep “unconscious” level of unfinished issues from a previous life! Then a cycle of lost memories feeds the underlying cauldron of worries and aggravates the situation.

Now that you have some understanding of the causes of all illnesses, the big questions are:

Are you ready and willing to examine the problems in your life and to make whatever changes are necessary to correct all health issues??

Are you willing to develop the absolute essential practices for optimal health?

 No smoking

 Maintaining a body mass index between 18 to 24

 Eating a minimum of five servings fruits and vegetables daily

 Exercising a minimum of thirty minutes at least five days a week

Only three percent of Americans have all four of these practices.

Having talked to thousands of individuals at my workshops over the past forty years who have come to hear about health, at most 25% of each audience maintains these four practices! All the drugs and surgeries in the world cannot substitute for common sense! As far as I can tell, health is far more important than any other aspect of life!

In addition to these four essentials, good sleep—a minimum of seven hours daily and for most people eight hours—is critical. In all of history, societal stress has been present—from natural stressors such as weather to political ones. Stress is inevitable. Thus, finding ways to cope with external stress becomes equally critical. Stress can be:

 physical—heat, cold, pressure, physical injuries, etc.

 mental/emotional—worry, anger, anxiety, guilt, depression

 chemical—toxins such as arsenic, cadmium, aluminum, lead as well as some 550,000 chemical pollutants released into the air, water, and earth every year and now 80% of all food sold in the U.S. is junk!

 nuclear—radioactivity has increased many thousands of times in the past seventy years

Physical stress is perhaps most easily understood, with heat and cold being obvious. And perhaps the most common serious physical stress injuries are created by a modern luxury—automobiles. Not that earlier travel by horse or on foot was without potential physical stress.

Mental emotional stress requires both proactive and corrective approaches. For instance, it has been shown that twenty minutes of deep relaxation twice a day reduces insulin requirement and adrenalin production by 50% for the entire twenty-four hours. (See The Relaxation Response by Herb Benson.) In 1929, Edmund Jacobson demonstrated that thirty minutes of progressive relaxation not only reduced stress but also actually improved 89% of most stress illnesses! And beginning in 1912, Johanne Schultz demonstrated that autogenic training, twenty minutes daily, reduced stress illnesses by 80%. By 1969, the first of six volumes on autogenic training was published, with 2600 scientific references. Although I have examined the wide variety of mental approaches to stress reduction for over forty years (See my 90 Days to Self-Health), autogenic training is still my favorite because of the tremendous research showing that athletes, students, business people, and those with most stress illnesses are managed well by this simple tool—coordinating the words with your slow breathing and creating visual images to reinforce the statements. Essentially, you get into a relaxed physical body position and repeat for about three minutes each of the following statements:

 My arms and legs are heavy and warm.

 My heartbeat is calm and regular.

 My breathing is free and easy.

 My abdomen is warm.

 My forehead is cool.

 My mind is quiet and still.

Get the sensory feedback, awareness from each part of your body—face, jaws, neck, shoulders, arms and hands, chest, breasts, abdomen, back, buttocks, pelvis, legs before and after twenty minutes of practice. Basically you can feel good and OK with no tense pain or discomfort and no feeling from each and every body part. The goal is the relaxed and OK feedback from each part! If after twenty minutes there are still areas that are not relaxed and OK, you can:

 Talk to the body part—e.g., My back is relaxed and comfortable.

 Love it—appreciate that part of your body.

 Tense and release the muscles in that part of your body.

 Breathe in and collect tension or discomfort from that part of your body and breathe out, releasing the undesired sensation.

 Breathe through the skin over that part of your body

 Circulate the electrical energy from your heels up the back to the top of your head as you breathe in, and circulate the electrical energy down the front of your body as you breathe out.

 Expand the electromagnetic field around your feet and gradually up around every part of your body, toes to head, seeing and feeling yourself in a capsule of living EMF (electromotive force) energy. Start with one sinch and expand gradually to 12 inches.

Three months of daily practice will retrain your brain and autonomic, automatic, nervous system. Then you may be able to continue with only five minutes daily.

Other tools for total body relaxation and balancing are:

 Good music

 Flashing lights at 1 to 7 cycles per second, such as the Shealy RelaxMate II

 Vibratory music, through speakers placed in the mattress

 Using chakra glasses—there are the 7 major colors—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple. Different strokes for different people—some people achieve much greater peace, using one they particularly like

 Hot tubs, saunas, or a soak in a regular bathtub, perhaps adding a few drops of lavender oil to the water

 Dancing or jogging

 Just walking or lying in nature

 Sitting in a copper pyramid or in front of a copper panel on the wall

 Developing and using a mantra: I am relaxed and comfortable, etc.

 Lying on a true magnetic mattress—MagneticoSleep is excellent.