What about your immunity?

I hear a lot of talk about the various illnesses that seem to flow freely throughout our small community. When it comes to the flu or any other common community ailment, it seems that paranoia is the most common denominator for all equations.   Hand sanitizers, masks and sterilizing all contact surfaces seems to be the order of the day.  I overheard a conversation at the High School the other day and the topic was in regard to the actual number of times a person should rub their hands together while washing in order to effectively kill all the germs on their hands.   It seems like it was around forty-five times.   I don't know about you but all that seems a bit ridiculous to me.  It's like a commander in battle telling his troops fighting from foxholes to drop their weapons and quickly organize their ammunition and grenades into neat little rows of six and if they will do this, they will be more effective against oncoming attacks.

Why are we living in fear of the common flu?  Why does it seem to get a little worse every year?   Might I be so forward as to suggest that it could be due to the fact that our collective immunity to such things is becoming weaker?  There is no other logical answer.

Your immune system is only as good as the fuel you provide for it.  Doesn't that make sense?  It's not magical and it is definitely not self sustaining.  Just like our military forces, it must be daily fortified and supplied in order to be effective.   I am also a firm believer that we do ourselves no favors when we give in to the paranoia of today's sanitizing frenzy.   Our immune system relies upon all the things your body comes into contact with daily in order to develop an immunity or a resistance to all the enemies that are floating around out there.  In other words, daily skirmishes and encounters with the enemy will provide a whole lot more knowledge and experience with the enemy than a major battle every nine months.  If your house is completely sanitized and germ free and you spend a couple of months in there without any exposure to the outside world and then you decide to go to the school Christmas party  . . . . . . . you are expecting your immune system to go from 0 to 60  in three seconds.   It doesn't work very well that way.

There are things you can do to boost the strength of your immune system and your body's ability to overcome illness.  Primarily it is done through diet.   The quality and quantity of nutrients, vitamins and minerals you provide your body will directly affect it's ability to react to and fight illness effectively.

I am a prime example of this philosophy.  When I was in my thirties, my immune system must have been extremely vulnerable.  Every time our family contracted the flu, I would generally get it three times as bad as any other member of the family. When the cough settled into my chest, I would cough and hack for weeks before I began to get any better.  Usually I was in bed for two or three days in the beginning.  I dreaded the flu; it became a matter of endurance and greatly affected my ability to work effectively or interact with the family.

As I have mentioned earlier, I have had the good fortune three years ago to be introduced to a food science company that provides nutritional products that are designed to provide the body with every conceivable form of quality nutrition known to man in a highly absorb able format.   Since I began taking advantage of these products, I have not been sick with the flu or any other malady for a single day - in three years.  Knowing my history with such things, that is incredible indeed.  Now when the flu comes around, I will get a very faint dose of each symptom; just enough to know that I have the flu but not enough to make me uncomfortable at all.  I will cycle through all of the symptoms and within two days, it is gone.  So, the flu does come to visit but my body kicks it out as fast as it arrives.   Now that is a happy story - life as it should be; good health from a position of strength rather than just being a victim every time some germ comes floating by.

Great health and vitality is possible.  You just have to open up your mind and think in order to turn the tide.

Have you thought about water?

When it comes to your health, how important is water in your daily diet? Extremely important, right?

Right - due to the fact that our bodies are made up of over 70% water, it is fair to say that water is critically important to our health.

If that is an established fact then how concerned are you with the quality of the water you are drinking. The next time you are sitting down at the supper table, take that big glass full of clear water in your hand and look at it. Water is water isn't it? Nothing special about it really, it's just inert matter that is nice to drink, fun to shower in and comes in real handy when your backyard is on fire.

Well, it is nice to drink and shower in and it works wonders on fires, but have you ever considered the possibility that water can change? What about the quality, with respect to the benefits it contains for your health? Is water always the same no matter how it has been cared for or the conditions it has been put through?

Well, if you were like me eight or ten years ago, you would say that water is pretty much the same in all cases except when it comes out of a mud puddle or has been sitting in your backpack too long. Water is water is water, right? Well, let me share with you some things that I have been fortunate to have learned in the past two years.

Before I get started, I must tell you that in order for you to benefit from anything I tell you with respect to nutrition, water, the soil or anything else contained in this blog, you will be required to open up your mind; to accept the very real possibility that the conventional wisdom available today on these topics is not always accurate and in fact, can sometimes be skewed significantly. Also remember that I am not an expert in any category, scientifically speaking or otherwise. I have just been exposed to some great knowledge and I consistently apply common sense to analyze this new found knowledge. I believe the "practical approach" adequately describes this pattern in my life recently. These are things that I have come to believe and have applied to my own life and to that of my family. We have benefited greatly and thus my motivation to share with others.

Now that we have established that, let's move on. Water, when properly structured and cared for (in its most perfect form) is actually a life form - a living thing. Surely you remember the Bible referring to the "living water"? I always thought that was a somewhat symbolic reference. I have learned that even though it was possibly used as a symbolic reference, the term is actually very literal as it applies to the natural world and its' most important element. Pure and properly structured water has more natural and uplifting properties contained within it than any other single component on earth.

When I was a kid cowboyin' in the mountains of Montana, I made it a point to keep track of where every natural water spring was located in my mind. When I was feeling tired, hot and thirsty, I would find a way to get to one of those springs. Jumping off my horse, I would flop down on my belly and slurp the crystal clear, ice cold water until I was satisfied. Then I would cup my hands and splash it on my face and down my neck. Thoroughly refreshed, I could then continue on for a few more hours, newly strengthened by the "living water" free flowing from the earth. At the time, I had no idea why that system worked so well, I just knew that I craved that cool clear mountain water and I somehow knew it was good for me.

About a year ago, I was doing some research for a good friend to supply information and credibility for a project we were working on together. My research was with respect to the positive properties of water and it's benefits for the human body, plants and animals. After doing some digging, I discovered the writings of a man referred to in his life as the "The Water Wizard". He was Viktor Shauberger (1885-1958), an Austrian forester who spent most of his life involved in the study of the water in the natural world. He was one of the first to discover the power of the natural vortex in cleaning, restructuring and oxygenating water. Are you remembering that water is actually a great and important source of oxygen?

As I read the discoveries of Mr Shauberger, who was shunned by the great scientists of the day, I began to think about what I had observed or witnessed in my life with respect to water and over time, the pieces started to fall into place in my mind.

I think everyone one alive can agree that the very best source of good, clean water is any location where it comes out of the earth in the form of a spring. Most of us don't know all the reasons that make this true, we just know it tastes great and seems to be refreshing. So if we believe that spring water is the best we have available to us, then what are the aspects of it that make it attractive? First is the appearance; it is so crystal clear and clean looking, "pure" if you will. Second, is the temperature; it is "cold". The third aspect that is fairly consistent is that it is usually running and burbling downhill as it exits the surface of the earth so it is "moving". Clear, cold and moving; three things that make spring water very attractive and refreshing. That is an accurate description of the best water we can find.

Now let's think about the worst water you are aware of; the kind of water that you would not drink under any circumstances. This would be in a swamp, in July where the slime and mosquitoes live. What are the known aspects of this water? It is warm, dirty, and stagnant. That is an accurate description of the worst water we could find; the kind of water you would not drink unless you had just traversed the Sahara Desert. If we are in agreement so far, I think then we can safely say the the most effective way to destroy the quality, desirability and effectiveness of water is to slow down or stop its natural movement, increase the temperature and wait for the contamination to begin.

Viktor Shauberger discovered that the secret to maintaining or restoring the positive qualities of water was to preserve its natural swirling, rolling movement (moving water is "living water"); much like what you see in mountain streams as the water tumbles and falls over the rocks as it moves downhill. This movement is a continuation of the cleansing, purifying, restructuring process that it goes through within the surface of the earth. What is the natural movement of water as it enters a bend or a change of direction in a stream or river? It rolls and twists in a "vortex" or funnel shape. This is natures' way of preserving the qualities of pure water for as long as possible and also to restructure and reload it with oxygen on a steady basis.

Now consider what modern man does to water in an industrialized world. The first thing that happens when we remove it from a stream is to put it in a pipe or a canal. These methods used to transport water usually  eliminate the natural swirling motion and also slow it down. Then when the water reaches the storage facilities, it becomes stagnant or motionless in most cases for days or even months before it is utilized. The temperature of this stagnant, stored water is never a concern. As is it enters the supply pipes that carry it into your house, chemicals such as chlorine are added to kill the parasites and other enemies of man. These are chemicals that if consumed in larger quantities would kill a human, outright.

We have really outsmarted ourselves again, haven't we? In our arrogance, we not only completely disregard obvious natural laws (and therefore also the consequences) when it comes to protecting the integrity of the most critical component we need in our bodies for good health, but then we smugly decide we can reverse or avoid the effects by adding toxic chemicals.

Hmmmmm . . . . . .

When you study the importance of water in our bodies, you will be taught that the actual structure or shape of the water molecule is critical to the ability of the body to actually absorb it. The receptor tissue of the body, such as in your mouth, stomach or intestines, where water is supposed to be absorbed, is shaped in a consistent way. When the water molecules come into contact with the receptor tissue, if they are the same shape, they slide right in and absorption and utilization is easy and immediate. If the water molecule is odd-shaped a conflict (square peg in a round hole) occurs and absorption is compromised and might even be impossible. So natural, "living", properly structured water from a mountain spring is highly absorbable while stagnant, "dead", compromised water is not. Sort of makes sense when you think about it. You are out in the yard mowing your lawn on a hot day. You put off going in the house for a drink as long as possible and finally, you go in and draw a large glass of that warm, chlorinated water from your tap and guzzle it down. Unsatisfied, you drink another. How do you feel now? Somewhat satisfied but there is also the sensation in your stomach that you have swallowed a water melon. You "slosh" for the next hour or so while your body tries to deal with the remainder of the water that it cannot utilize.

Do you realize that ninety percent of our population is seriously dehydrated on a very regular basis? Even your doctor will tell you to drink more water. Well, drink and drink and never quite get satisfied. You know I'm right because you have lived it. You walk into your house for a drink of water and you just can't help looking at that tap in your sink with distain. Well? Like I said, let's take the common sense approach and listen to our bodies for a change. Compare that feeling with what your body tells you the next time you are hiking in the mountains and come across a natural spring. Now take your canteen out of your pack and hold it in one hand. Look at it and then look at that spring water. What is your body telling you? Drink the spring water!!

I know, I know; bottled water to the rescue! Read the label or do a little research. 80% of the water that is bottled and marketed to folks like us in a now multi-billion dollar industry is . . . . . . . . . . . . you guessed it - bottled from a city water supply. Oh, it's filtered I know, but how much of its' integrity was lost while it sat in the city storage tank at 60 degrees? Then how long did it sit in a warehouse or on a shelf or in your storage room before it finally gets introduced into your mouth?

There is a massive amount of evidence available today that links illness and health problems to a lack of quality water consumption. Again, good health is extremely dependent upon adequate hydration and we are not getting it. Drink more water they say. Yes, but if the quality is not there, the desired effect will not be either. Case in point - place a large garbage bag over your head and poke four small holes in it. Then secure a line of duct tape around your neck. At some point thereafter, a lack of oxygen will become a concern for you. You will have the desire to correct the problem and I will tell you - "breathe, just breathe . . . breathe more air!"                   It's not going to work  . . . . . . . is it?

There are several ways to oxygenate and restructure water; ways to duplicate what nature does to restore the life sustaining properties of water. If you are interested, contact me at briggsdistributors@live.com and I will be glad to share some of my ideas with you. You could also Google Viktor Shauberger and read up on it for yourself.    Now go to the sink and tank up on some of that good water that man has protected and preserved for you -   Bottoms up, I guarantee you will never look at bottled water the same again.

Soil as it Relates to Nutrition

Most of us in the United States take a lot of things for granted and we are also victims of the machine. We trust the system and accepted methods way, way too much.

One day I was shopping with my wife in one of the major superstores. I was a bit bored and found myself just staring down one of the isles, looking at nothing in particular, but actually observing the whole of what was within my view. I saw hundreds and hundreds of brightly colored boxes and plastic containers with all types of flashy names and slogans printed on them. My mind began to analyze what I was seeing. Was this really food I was looking at? Just regular old food? Well, there did not appear to be anything regular about it,not with all the flashy colors and such. All this stuff must be something really exotic and incredibly good, it all looked so attractive.

Randomly, out of sheer curiosity, I reached out a grabbed the nearest colorful box; the prettiest one. Slowly and deliberately, I read the ingredients. It began to occur to me that even though I am an above average reader and reasonably good with vocabulary, I could not pronounce exactly half of the items contained in the ingredients list. That bothered me.

If I can't pronounce the names of these ingredients, there is a strong chance that I really don't know what they are and an even stronger chance that I do not really need them inside of my stomach. I had to wonder if these ingredients that I could not pronounce were put in there for my benefit and well being or for the convenience or benefit of the manufacturer?

I put the box back on the shelf and again, scanned the isle studying the exterior of all the containers. Then it hit me, these folks are all in a big contest. All of the companies that have their products on these shelves are competing against eachother for my money. My money, my neighbor Bob's money, Uncle Joe's money, everybody's money. I could not come up with any other explanation for all the jazzy packaging.

I asked myself, "Are all these manufacturers really concerned about my good health? How many meetings in corporate offices are held to discuss the potential impact of all these whacky ingredients on my body?"

Well, I was on a roll now so I waltzed up and down the isles, looking for products that I thought might be manufactured and sold by companies who did have my best interests at heart. Oh, I found a few that I felt might actually be concerned about how their products were produced and what it was that was going in my stomach, but it was very few, comparatively speaking.

I found myself in the produce section. This is the place where we buy things that are supposed to be very healthy and good for us to eat. You know, fruits and vegetables and all that grows in the dirt. I went from label to label searching for the name of a local company, someone who raised produce within a hundred miles of my home. You guessed it, I quickly became alarmed that the vast majority of it was raised not only outside of that hundred mile radius, it was raised outside of our country!

Soon thereafter, I was able to locate my wife; her cart mounded up with all those brightly colored packages and lovely looking produce. I was a changed man, never to look upon a basket of groceries the same again.

How many of you, taking the time out of your day to read this post, are aware of how soil is designed to work? Some call it dirt, some call it soil, whatever you prefer to call it, it is the medium from which all food related items that you swallow originate from. Let me back up; it is the medium from which all food related items that you swallow are "supposed" to originate from! In reality, I guess, we would actually have to go back to 1880 for that to actually be the case and in that setting, there would be a well used garden spade, a hoe, a fork and any number of other soil related impliments in every shed or garage in America. In those days, practically every household had a garden and everyone of those gardeners had a working knowledge of soil and how it functions. If not, they didn't eat very well. I realize, painfully; those days are gone, likely for good.

Dirt is dirt you argue, nothing special about that, right?

Wrong.

Soil or "dirt", when adequately understood and evaluated can only be accurately described as the foundation of most living things. If you doubt me, please come up with the name of any life form on earth (living on or above the land) that does not require nutrition originating in the soil. That should put the importance of soil and it's condition into the proper perspective.

Here's another eye-opener for you. Soil, in and of itself, with all proper ingredients in place, is a living, breathing, manufacturing machine. It is a life form, in and of itself. That fact will come as a surprise to eighty percent of you. In 1880, it would have surprised no one.

Any good, knowledgeable gardener will explain to you that the produce harvested from a garden is only as good as the soil it came from. Of course this same principle applies not only to peas and corn, it also applies to wheat, barley, bananas, apples, soybeans, and any other food related item that requires sunshine and water in order to grow. You think about that list the next time you are surveying your cupboards for something to have for supper. Even though it comes in those nice, fancy packages, the majority of the ingredients should still come from the soil.

So if in fact, all of this is true, then why is it that society is no longer concerned at all about soil? It's because the responsibility for the maintenance and assurance of soil quality has been transferred to others; and the "others" is an alarmingly small number compared with the amount of folks who have no concern for it at all. In the United States today, one large farming corporation could conceivably raise enough of a particular food item to supply, lets say, 100,000 people for a year. This would be especially true for a food item like wheat, for example. So in reality, let's assume that there are five corporate officers of this company who are responsible for making the decisions that are related to soil quality on their farm. So, due to the wonders of monstrous modern machinery, five people could actually control and manage the production, quality control and sale of enough of one food item to supply up to 100,000 people for an entire year. That's quite a shift from 1880 when it would have been more like a ratio of ten to one. In that case it wouldn't have been difficult at all to track down who was responsible for puny turnips on your plate.

We are a trusting bunch aren't we?

Back to the soil. If you can swallow the theory or idea that healthy soil is actually a living thing, then what exactly does that life form within soil consist of? It is a thing called a macro or a micro-organism. "Micro" meaning an extremely tiny little organism that lives and works on and below the surface, eating and digesting every inert form of matter that it comes into contact with. During the digestive process, it will break down and convert all substances (whenever possible) back into their respective original, natural components. These natural components, (minerals and such) it knows are vital to the feeding and nourishing of the plant life that the soil is supporting. These micro-organisms are amazingly enterprising little machines working 24/7 to generate the vast majority of the nutrients that will be absorbed by the roots for plant growth and development. Many other things such as the absorption of oxygen and water particles are also vital to the soil system, but it is the micro and macro organisms within the soil that provide most of the nutrition to the plants. Photosynthesis and other natural processes contribute as well. The plants in turn, along with all the nutrients contained therein, are then processed and digested by your body. Seems simple enough right?

If the gardener or farmer understands and abides by the rules of maintaining good, healthy soil, then the plants that are produced from that soil can be relied upon consistently as a good source of "complete" and quality nutrition. Unfortunately, in order for that to happen, in most cases, you would have to remove the "money" or income factor from the scenario in order to ensure the nutrient quality. When you are raising your own produce, in your own soil, you are going to be concerned with only one priority and that it the overall quality of that produce and how that translates to your good health. If you are raising that same produce for a profit on a very large scale, I believe that priority of overall quality could easily and quickly be sacrificed for the "bottom line". Add to that the reality that many of the modern synthetic fertilizers and chemicals that are sprayed on the soil and crops are actually toxic to the micro and macro organisms in the soil. Consistent and steady use of these toxins will, over time, cause these organisms to go dormant and cease to function. Less organism function translates to less nutrients to the plants; a plain an simple truth.

When most Americans shop for produce at their local superstore, they are really only concerned with the overall appearance of that produce - how attractive it is to their eye, with little or no concern for the actual nutrient content of that some produce. After all, how in the world is the average consumer going to be able to determine nutrient quality or quantity? They can't and most producers are counting on that fact. Modern science produces many ways and products that provide producers with the ability to grow very "good looking" fruits and vegetables. These same methods and products are not designed to ensure complete nutrition at the same time, only mother nature can do that. Some natural processes cannot be replaced.

Many, many organic growers are popping up all over the place these days. They are generally much more concerned about the growth process and the over-all nutrient quality of their produce. This is a good trend, but always remember, man kind is carnal in nature and will tend to lean toward profit margins in any large commercial operation.

In 1935, a good, successful farmer understood the natural farming rules of crop rotation, composting with organic material and other methods that would effectively feed and balance their soil on an annual basis. By farming smart, they could actually use the same soil year after year successfully without losing very much in terms of soil quality. Crop rotation provided a means for the micro-organisms to manufacture a complete and balanced menu of nutrients to the plants, year after year. Organic fertilizers such as manure and left over crop residue did a nice job of replacing required components also. Now days, we have outsmarted ourselves. Good crop rotation habits have gone by the wayside due to the demands of a fluxuating market. In some cases, farmers are planting the same fields with wheat and barley year after year, if those markets remain profitable. Fertilizer salesmen come around and convince them that by using their products, they can effectively by-pass nature and inject all the necessary ingredients back into the soil each year. Think about a produce operation in South America or in Mexico. Heaven knows they are aware of some of the same methods used to by-pass the necessity of crop rotation and there can be no doubt that they are certainly not subject to the same regulations that our American farmers are. They can literally grow big, fat, beautiful heads of lettuce year after year in the same soil. All they need to accomplish this is a nice, big dose of synthetic fertilizer to get the job done. Not only that, but plants artificially stimulated will in some cases, grow much larger and faster than those relying strictly upon mother nature. Faster and bigger translates into more tonage of product, more heads of lettuce and more profit. Remember . . . . . . . . . . "The bottom line".

Think of it as plants on steroids; a crude and crazy comparison maybe but you get my drift.

By now, I think you are just beginning to see the big picture. The industrialization and modernization of our food industry has not necessarily been a good thing for our over all health individually and collectively. Your body will only perform according to the quality and quantity of good, pure nutrition that it is provided. That just makes sense, doesn't it? If the soil that is used to produce the plants that provide our food is out of balance or just plain depleted of critical nutrients, then it stands to reason that the food we eat will not be what it could or should be. You can eat "good looking" celery and cabbage till it is coming out your ears, but if it is not of high nutritional quality, you are just processing a lot of good-looking, fairly expensive green stuff.

I rest my case.

As stated in the previous post, I have been fortunate enough to have discovered a very valuable, cost-effective source of quality nutrition. Over the past three years, I have enjoyed a dramatic turn around in my overall health condition for the good. I will be happy to share that process with you if you contact me at briggsdistributors@live.com

Best wishes

WRB

Why are we so unhealthy?

This question first came into my mind years ago when at the age of 35, I was suffering from some fairly significant health problems that were causing me a lot of personal anxiety and also beginning to limit what I was able to do physically. Having been very active most of my life as a professional guide in Montana, this development in my life was a serious problem that would eventually have a significant effect upon my ability to continue in my profession.

In my own defense, I would say that over the course of my life, I had taken reasonable good care of my body in terms of what I put into it. I had been a non-smoker, non-drinker and for the most part had been very well taken care of by my mother growing up and also my wife following our marriage in 1985. Over the course of my life to that point, about 90% of the meals that I ate were home cooked from "scratch" with quality ingredients. My record in terms of junk food was not perfect, but I was not in the habit of eating candy or other junk type stuff on a regular basis. Still, at a young age, I began to have severe problems with chronic heartburn which deteriorated into an infection in my stomach lining. I had to start being very selective with what I was eating and could not comfortably eat at restaurants or other people's tables without the fear of launching another attack of stomach pain. I had been treated by various doctors for years with only short-term, occasional relief - the problem would always return with more severity each time.

I had also had a severe heart murmur from birth that was a constant source of anxiety and concern due to the nature of my daily physical exertion. There is nothing quite like feeling your heart stop beating - then to skip a beat and then restart itself at a much faster pace in order to get back into normal rhythm. This would happen as often as fifteen to twenty times a day, depending upon how hard I was working. Again, the doctors who identified this problem were not able to treat it effectively and informed me that I would have it the rest of my life and that some people with my condition would die at a young age with little or no warning. Needless to say, I was not very happy with that diagnosis.

About this same time, I started having a lot of trouble with my lower back. I had constant pain there, particularly at night when trying to sleep. I simply could not get comfortable and for most of the night would never get into any deep or really restful sleep patterns. I thought it was my mattress! My back would go out on a regular basis which left me crippling around, my back in the shape of the proverbial "question mark". To complicate this situation further, I inherited Sleep Apnea from my father (also diagnosed by doctors). I was becoming more and more sluggish due to a lack of quality sleep and absolutely dreaded going to bed each night due to the fact that I knew it would be pure torture to try to wake up and get going when the alarm went off.

Taking all of this into consideration, there were other problems as well, such as the fact that whenever the dreaded flu would come around to our house, I seemed to get the industrial strength version and it would drag on for up to three weeks before I could begin to shake the symptoms. Sometimes I would be hacking and coughing for up to six weeks. I was also plagued with a steady variety of infections and other maladies that would have me in and out of the cycle of antibiotics that just never seemed to put an end to anything.

I reached a point in this never-ending battle that I just had to ask myself the obvious question . . . . ."Why am I having all of these health problems?" By most people's standards, I was doing a fairly good job of taking care of my body - I was very active in terms of exercise, at times hiking up to eight miles in steep terrain. I was eating fairly healthy and was not really ingesting anything that would be considered by most to be bad for my health. So why? Why such poor health?

Well, the answers did not come at age 35. I struggled along for a few more years until a break in the clouds came in the form of an excellent Naturopathic Chiropractor that my mother referred my wife and I to in 1998. Through this good man, we began to unravel some of our chronic problems and after several visits, began to see some relief in many categories. Even so, the relief was temporary with the symptoms usually returning after a few weeks. A good example of this was with how my wife's neck was continually going out of whack. She would get an adjustment and feel great for a couple of weeks but again, within four to five weeks, we would be back at the Chiropractor for another adjustment.

Does any of this sound familiar? I am sure my wife and I are more the rule than the exception. Well, I am just about to get to the good part.

Due to a series of events that are too numerous to describe in this narrative, by December of 2006, we were no longer in the outfitting business and I was coming down off of the effects of serving as the County Sheriff in the area where we lived. It probably goes without saying that the stress and strain of that experience certainly did nothing to improve my overall health condition - in fact, through the course of my years as sheriff; I had developed a very severe case of Fibromyalgia that was steadily crippling me. This was on top of all the other problems earlier described. I was a mess and due to my inability to do much physically, I was slipping into depression as well.

At age 42, I did not have a very optimistic outlook on life. With a lot of life left to live, I was certainly perplexed as to why I was in such bad shape for a guy who had supposedly taken fairly good care of himself.

It was at this exact point in time, December of 2006, that I received a phone call from my dad that was the opening of a door that would forever change the course of my life and that of my immediate family. In that phone conversation, I learned that one of our mutual friends, who had been suffering from the debilitating effects of a severe brain injury for many years, had miraculously recovered. This development was revealed when this friend stopped in to see my dad to shake his hand and tell him that in his case, a miracle had happened, and he was on the road to recovery. He was walking and talking normally! The last we had seen of him, he was reduced to shuffling from his bed to the couch in the living room - that being the extent of what he could do without collapsing. As a result of his injury, he had suffered from severe panic and anxiety attacks, constant headaches, equilibrium problems, super-sensitive hearing, slurred speech and many other problems too numerous to mention. His condition was diagnosed as irreversible and terminal by doctors and specialists.

In talking to him and his family members, they told me that they had been introduced to a company that provided a series of products that were designed to deliver the highest quality of complete nutrition in a form that was 98% absorbable to the body. These products, taken consistently over the course of several weeks, had evidently provided this friends' body the fuel it needed to begin the healing process and to reverse the affects of the brain injury. Over the previous several months, all of the symptoms of his "terminal" injury began to fade to the point that his wife was able to gradually discontinue most of the over 40 prescription medications and narcotics that the doctors and specialists had prescribed for well over five years.

Working with this good family, my wife and I began to take these same products as soon as was possible. Without going into all the details, I am very pleased to say that within six months, all of my major ailments were on their way out. Within ten days of taking the products, I noticed a significant improvement in the way I felt waking up in the morning. For the first time in over fifteen years, I was waking up feeling rested, refreshed and ready to get after it at 6:00 AM! It is important to note that I said "waking up". The alarm was not waking me up; I was waking up on my own. What an exciting thing that was for me. I started getting up and fixing breakfast for my family. (my wife thought it was great too . . . . .)

Both my wife and I began to feel a real difference in our energy levels and our over-all vitality. She was able to return to her daily exercise regiment without the residue of muscle and joint stiffness - a real boost to her positive outlook on life. Our immune systems are much improved as evidenced by the fact that neither one of us have had a serious case of the flu or any other malady for almost three years.

What a turnaround! It was an absolute reversal of a trend that for us was taking us down a road of struggle and depression. Today we are healthy, happy and very active. As I sit writing this narrative, I have no significant health problems remaining. I have the good fortune of spending as much time as possible in the woods and back country, hiking and hunting without the limitations of physical ailments. I go where I want and feel great doing it!

As you can imagine, as all of this was unfolding, my brain was working trying to make sense of what I had been through and all that had happened. Obviously, the solution to all the problems that I had been previously plagued with had come in the form of quality nutrition - that being the only real change I had made in my daily regimen that resulted in the reversal of my health situation. I gave my body what it needed to do the job the Creator designed it to do more effectively and completely. Makes a lot of sense doesn't it? Put your body back in charge of not only healing itself, but also in fighting daily to prevent those problems from returning. As has been proven in thousands and thousands of cases, the human body is incredible in its ability to heal and reconstruct itself so we should not be surprised with this concept.

I personally believe, over the past eighty years, two things have happened to contribute to the over-all decline in personal health and wellness and the increase in premature death and disability from things like Cancer and Diabetes. First and most importantly, the majority of our people now live in cities and urban areas and have ceased to raise or have any control at all over the food that they eat on a daily basis. They rely one hundred percent upon industry and commercial agriculture for their food supply. Are those producers taking care of their soil? Is there a possibility that their soil is worn out and no longer provides the same level of nutrients to the plants that it did twenty years ago? How confident are you in the over-all quality of food that is raised in Mexico or South America? As far as you know, do the companies that are raising and selling this food have your best interests at heart or are they simply interested in the bottom line? A very legitimate question I believe and one that we should all be asking ourselves. I personally believe that a local farmers market is a far more trusted source of quality food if you cannot raise your own. Secondly, in the incredible rise to power of our current medical and pharmaceutical industry, we have come to rely, for the most part, on synthetic medications and man-made procedures for every aspect of healing (the quick fix society). In other words, the focus for the actual healing process has shifted from our bodies natural systems, to that of unnatural processes, injections and drugs. We place all of our faith for the "healing" process upon medications and procedures that are in reality, not actually capable of any healing at all! After all, most medications are designed to knock down or temporarily "disable" a symptom of an illness or so-called disease, long enough to allow the body to heal the problem. If our bodies do not have the fuel necessary for the healing process to be even started, much less completed, then it only stands to reason that we will not be healed. The healing machine must have sufficient fuel to go to work. If it does not, it will wait patiently until the fuel arrives. Thus, the phenomenon of chronic illness, and physical ailments that just hang on and never really go away.

We are all struggling, health wise, in one way or another. Look around at your family and friends and all of those you work with. How many of them are on prescription meds with no end in sight? How many are either diabetic or concerned about becoming diabetic? How many have high blood pressure, Arthritis, high cholesterol, or any number of other maladies? Generally speaking, the people in this country are not healthy and it gets worse every day.

We have had the good fortune to be able to provide help and a way up for many within our circle of influence and have witnessed some very incredible things over the course of the past three years as we have improved our own quality of life. Understand that in order to improve your health through nutrition, you must have the ability and desire to be dedicated to the project. In the natural world, there is no such thing as a "quick fix". As much as you may be addicted to that mentality, understand that just like the growing of good plants in your garden, the healing and reconstruction of your body systems will be a daily, methodical process. Your body will follow a process very similar in nature to the remodeling of a house. It must breakdown and remove the problems and bad, incomplete cells before re-construction of the new cells can begin. This is nothing to be afraid of - it just requires some faith, dedication and patience.

It is very important for you to know that I am not a wizard or an expert in any category. I am just a very normal person who has been fortunate enough to have had friends who were willing to share their experience and good fortune with me. Thankfully, I still have an open mind and try hard to apply common sense thinking with respect to how things work. It is also important for you to know that everything that I have done to improve my health and vitality has been based upon “results”. It is also important for you to know that all of the information in this narrative is very simply my opinions, based purely upon my own observations and my personal experiences. I am one of those who enjoys interacting with regular people and stand willing to help you if you are genuinely serious about changing your own destiny. I currently work for the local school district, my wife and I have three daughters ages 19, 16 and 6. We have two sons ages 21 and 17. We are currently very happy living in rural Wyoming.

If you are serious about starting and following the process that has turned our lives around, please post an entry or contact me at briggsdistributors@live.com. I am happy to answer your questions or just discuss this topic of improved health and wellness.

Best wishes,

Bill