I started the program four years ago. It took me a long time to finish it, but it was a busy and rewarding time, full of amazing experiences. During this time I truly lived my inner version of the Hippocrates lifestyle, I learned, processed, shared with others and created an amazing job opportunity, all in connection with this program. This time was full of insights, intensity, and inner growth.

Six years ago I started suffering from an undiagnosed digestive problem that resulted in severe abdominal pain and most likely also caused erosive gastritis in the stomach and duodenitis. Just a few weeks ago the doctors were eventually able to detect an obstruction in the extra hepatic biliary duct. For these six years I have been continuously struggling with severe pains, persistent itching, occasional nausea, and couldn’t tolerate any supplements, synthetic or natural. Being a persistent person, as I am, I searched for every possible way to cure and relieve the symptoms. I tried an allopathic approach for a very short spell, Naturopathy,  Ayurveda and Chinese medicine, only to discover that everything I had tried was making me feel much worse. I was already extremely conscious of a need for a healthy food, and lifestyle regime. My mom passed away when I was 21 due to stomach cancer, and I was struggling myself for many years with depression, anorexia and bulimia. Soon I discovered that only a very natural plant based, organic, mainly raw food diet was relieving my emotional symptoms and helped control bulimic attacks.

Sadly, due to a stomach erosion and hepatic obstruction, I have lost capacity to eat raw fibers, and I could only drink some fresh, vegetable juices, but even this was causing pain. I started losing all vitality; feeling fatigued all the time, sleeping long hours and struggling with my demanding job.

I kept persistently searching for ways to diagnose and cure my condition, but with more acceptance and serenity. I gave myself up to pain and discomfort. That was when I heard the name of Hippocrates Institute cropping up in several American podcasts about natural healing approaches.

I knew that raw food was giving me more vitality so healing with the raw food approach really appealed to me. I tapped into The Hippocrates Short Start Course and bought some sprouting jars. I had no idea how to start eating fibers again without pain, so I decided I will be only juicing and eating 100 percent sprout salads. I cooked the mature plants to soften the tougher fibers.

The effect was outstanding. The salads based only on sprouts were causing no pain and brought an immediate surge of vitality.  Life was less of a struggle, I could sleep less, and do more, start doing some sport, and look after my family without exhaustion.

Highly encouraged, I enrolled in The Hippocrates Lifestyle Course in 2019.

Many things have happened in my life since then and a lot of it has been influenced by this amazing, exciting and fulfilling course. From a perspective of a few last years it has been more like a journey, that has brought me to completely undiscovered realms, giving  me knowledge and insights, and bodily experiences, that have affected my emotional and spiritual life.

At first the Hippocrates Program gave me hope. The hope that comes with the feeling that something worked for me, that my body accepted something with no pain, hope that I could have energy again, recover my life force.

On a mental level, the knowledge that there is a lifestyle that can rebalance our health without any special medication or heavy supplementation, just with the power of nature, lowered substantially my levels of fear. Since I was very young I had a fear of dying of cancer. My Mom was diagnosed with the stomach cancer when I was 19 and died within two years after a horrible ordeal of chemotherapy, surgeries and pain. Ever since then I struggled with this fear and I dedicated a substantial part of my life to discovering cancer healing natural protocols. As valuable as they were, they were relying heavily on very specific, expensive and abundant supplementation. With my stomach damage and hepatic obstruction being severe in the last few years I could not take any natural supplements.

That raised the levels of fear of cancer and left me with the feeling of lack of protection and vulnerability.

When I started sprouting, eating spirulina, and sea vegetables I started to feel so good, so much stronger, and the knowledge that I can feel like this without all these fancy supplements and maybe prevent cancer and other diseases made me feel so ecstatic and independent.

On a physical level I had experienced numerous health benefits: my energy levels rose so I could exercise, and that in turn improved my energy even more. I felt much less pain, and I could start eating things that were prohibitive for me before and enrich my diet. After a few years some damage in my digestive tract started repairing itself: the erosion in the stomach was repaired, however I am still suffering from metaplasia of the stomach lining, the general inflammation of the digestive tract diminished. During the time I suffered most from the digestive pain, my periods become less abundant, with the very black blood, and I was often irritable. After I started with the Hippocrates lifestyle my periods become more abundant, with red, clear blood, I didn’t feel so much of the PMS. As a result of all of it, my husband and I decided to try for a baby together      (we have raised 3 children together, but we really wanted to have one who would be of both of us. We abandoned the idea because of my health problems and my age they were beginning to be advanced). After my health improved, we went for it and within four months I got pregnant naturally and successfully. I had a healthy baby daughter at the age of 46 and I have been already breastfeeding her for 19 months and planning on carrying on until she is 2.

As a result of the Hippocrates course, my husband and I became vegans as, is our baby. My older teenage son stopped eating meat and my teenage daughter diminished the amount of animal products and started paying more attention to her diet.

On an emotional level I notice that my emotional patterns have shifted steadily and gradually from feeling a sacrificing and resentful victim, discouraged and unsteady, to completely different levels where the courage, love, satisfaction, patience, acceptance, persistence, calm and bliss are consistently present. I love this new Ania and feel much more comfortable with this more effortless emotional functioning.

There were a lot of inspiring lectures on the course. They affected me on many levels. Being on the course helped me confront a profound loss that happened just a few months ago. We lost our oldest child, the 19-year-old biological son of my husband, who lived with us almost all of his childhood. The loss was sudden and happened as a result of an accident, when our youngest daughter was only 1. The violence of what had happened affected us profoundly on all levels: we all felt sick numerous times, went through despair, panic attacks, intense fear and sense of unimaginable loss within just a few first weeks of the accident. Because of the shock my milk production diminished and this and our ongoing sadness affected our baby. In this trying moment the Hippocrates lifestyle was a Godsend. As soon as we were able to stand on our feet and sprout again and drink some green juices, we felt like we were standing on a solid base that was carrying us through this crisis. We started looking for spiritual help and it was coming through the love and care of our friends looking after us, books and knowledge about the travel of the soul, and people who shared their experiences about the death of their beloved. I am very positive that the Hippocrates lifestyle gave us physical and emotional strength and enough of a calm of mind to get us through the initial moments of loss.

My whole family, have been impacted by the course, and I think, mainly positively. My husband followed my path and now eats vegan, sprouts and drinks green juices every day. He controls his psoriasis problem with the diet, although he didn’t succeed to rid himself of it entirely. He lost almost 20 kg of weight and looks really great. My baby girls eats vegan too and loves sprouts. She looks really healthy and has fallen sick only once since she was born. My two teenage children have became really mindful of their diet, especially my son, who became a vegetarian and cured his severe acne with the combination of diet and conventional and Ayurvedic treatment.

Two years ago we started a business: we sell the organic, seeds for sprouting which are of excellent quality and a fantastic price, so that everybody can become independent in their home and sprout for a few pennies. Our company is called Germinamore and it is most likely the only company in Spain that sells seeds for sprouting to the particular clients for a fair price that allows them to eat sprouts in abundance. We run training workshops and show people how to go about the sprouting in practice. My teenagers got involved in the parallel activity and started producing microgreens for local clients and they are earning extra pocket money. As you see, the Hippocrates Lifestyle influenced our family on many levels.

I had some strong beliefs about food that have shifted as I followed the lifestyle.  The strongest change by far was the one about eating fish and Omega 3, and another one, that it is easier to absorb are the proteins of animal origin. I, myself wasn’t an enormous animal product eater, but still would eat some fish once or twice a week. During my menstruation I had some enormous cravings for meat too. I was subconsciously encouraging the animal products intake in my children, because I felt insecure and not sure if I could meet their nutritional needs without them, especially in terms of protein. The lectures on the course shifted all these beliefs and I felt more secure in changing the diet of my whole family. I found it quite liberating. Especially, since I started eating sprouts my cravings for meat have disappeared, so it is  much easier for me to follow my beliefs and stop eating meat altogether.

I think financially this lifestyle is not inexpensive, at least here in Southern Spain. We eat almost 100% ecological and it doubles the cost of food even though we purchase a lot of fruits and vegetables from local market and growers. Especially with the teenagers, looking for nutritious options, but at the same time the ones that agree with their taste buds, are sometimes extremely costly and challenging. As long as we have means to do it, we will remain committed to making the best choices possible.

I was extremely motivated to get onto a Hippocrates program and it was frankly quite easy taking into account my situation: at that time I could hardly eat anything, so the fact that the sprouts were so easy for me to digest was a fantastic starter. We lived in a small flat in France at that time, and in my tiny kitchen I managed to sprout almost anything. I had three medium size sprouting jars and the small set of 7 drawers (that I recovered from the rubbish bin; ha-ha!) where I grew hydroponically wheatgrass and peas shoots. I worked hard as a teacher at that time, so I would wake up every day at 6 am to prepare my fresh salad for lunch.

In the morning I would have only a flask of warm herb tea and I would fast till midday. I would have my salad with sprouts, sea vegetables and spirulina at school, together with some avocados or nuts.

I would have my wheatgrass and my green juice at home around 5 pm. I would then share a cooked meal with my family in the evening. I would have some soaked and cooked legumes, gluten free grains and vegetables.

As soon as I gained more strength I would go for walks every day after work, jump on the trampoline for 15 min, do some bike, followed by stretching exercises.

My main success was regaining vitality, diminishing pain, healing erosive gastritis, increasing my fertility and general health.  On a mental and emotional level, I felt diminished fear and anxiety levels, gained more focus and persistence, and that ultimately led to my final diagnosis (that was extremely hard to receive): the extra hepatic duct congestion. These objectives I didn’t achieve: couldn’t clear my biliary tract with the natural methods, and I am still suffering from the metaplasia in my stomach and it’s symptoms on daily basis.

I find that it is very challenging to take full responsibility for one’s health in a system that doesn’t favor this attitude. Even though, all of us, the whole society, suffer enormously tragic and painful consequences of bad lifestyle habits, and at the same time, we are being highly discouraged from taking a real responsibility for our life.  Even our closest family and friends tend to discourage us from getting healthier. It is illogical but real, that the system prefers to sustain people with poor health, which is costly in every way, rather than educate them into being independent on the health path. I was very lucky, because from the beginning I had the unconditional support of my husband and that for me was a game changer.

One of the most amazing impacts the course had on me was realizing our, culturally maintained, superficial and insincere relationship with the food and what follows, with nature and the entire planet. I was deeply impacted by the lectures and the book by Dr.Tuttle and the realization that through the way we eat we manifest our attitude towards all the living beings and the planet itself. I have never thought of it this way and so it entirely changed my life and my relationship with the world. Now my way of eating is more conscious and full of gratitude towards all these beings which bodies nurture us (plants, seeds, fruits, sunshine, etc.) I decided to eat vegan, as much as it is possible, in a world that is not made easy for vegans. I treat it as taking responsibility for my health, the health of my close community and the health of our planet.

I try to be as honest with myself and others about my lifestyle and beliefs as only I can. I believe that my biggest contribution to the world is giving and receiving unconditional love. I try to live daily according to Gandhi’s words: “Be the change you want to see in the world”. Showing generous, loving attitude towards my children, husband, friends, family, animals, plants and strangers in the streets, being mindful and kind, inclusive and cooperative, allow myself mistakes and bad days, love and understand myself and the rest of the world. Hippocrates Lifestyle brings a lot of love into my life through eating vibrationaly high food, being around and caring for little live beings every day and sharing this marvelous knowledge with our community.

I think feeling and sharing love and peace are the practices that make the biggest difference to live my best life. Part of giving and sharing this love and peace is eating plant based food, full of sprouts, blue green algae, and sea vegetables. Our house is always open to those who want to share our midday salad with us, which is full of nutrients. I have observed that my compassion has extended and deepened greatly towards a lot more living beings: the animals around me and people in difficulties. The communication with my children has become much more sincere and meaningful thanks to this compassion.

I always loved movement and considered it extremely important for my body. I dance, go for long walks, jump on a trampoline and do chi kung and basic yoga stretching exercises. The last few months however, since our oldest child passed away, it has become extremely challenging to maintain my usual movement routine. The fact that I am 47 and still breastfeeding, the shock of the sudden death of our beloved child, sustaining grief and sorrow of my husband and the rest of our three children, was extremely overwhelming and the feeling of physical and emotional exhaustion is very significant. I prioritized sleep and rest whenever it was possible and the exercise I found was very hard to achieve. My husband supports me with drinking plenty of green juices every day and my son took over sprouting for us and the clients, so every day we eat our fresh, fantastic sprouts, and hopefully soon I will be able to exercise some more.

I am really looking forward to finishing the course. I have been already mentoring informally for quite a long time. People around are so sick and have so many problems, so it felt only right to share what I have learned and help out whenever someone shows an  interest and opened up.

Closing the chapter on online training will probably give way to more formal mentoring, more sprouting courses and our Germinamore company development. I and my husband have so many projects that are not yet realized but already present in our imagination: more Hippocrates type centers in Europe, chains of vegan sprouts diners, reaching out to natural health clinics and propose them our sprouting courses and so on.

We await the future and live the present with joy and fascination, wondering what is awaiting us around the corner. We welcome with acceptance all what is coming. As my late son, Noe used to say: “Accept what you cannot change”. The Hippocrates Lifestyle gave me strength to change things I can change and Noe showed me to accept the things I cannot change. Thank you for everything.

The post Seeds of Change: A Personal Tale of Health, Hope, and Hippocrates appeared first on Hippocrates Wellness.

For many years, I have been struggling to what the medical world defines as “chronic fatigue” induced by autoimmune diseases – Hashimoto’s and Hypothyroidism, to which I’ve added an adventurous lifestyle: trekking, cycling, walking the most remote parts of the world, running a business from my phone/laptop, being a single mum, and building schools in Africa, in my spare time. You think I was busy? It got a lot busier…

Some nine years ago, I told myself that I no longer wanted to live with these chronic diseases. Someone somewhere must have known how to fix me. I have read in many places (books, online blogs) that Hashimoto’s disease and Hypothyroidism were incurable autoimmune diseases and that there was nothing anybody could do. However, I have never given up on the hope that someone somewhere must have known how to reverse these diseases.

While searching on what to do to dimmish the debilitating “chronic fatigue” syndrome, I came across many bright people this Earth is holding, one of them being Brian Clement, at the Hippocrates Wellness of health in Florida. I subscribed to the YouTube channel “The Real Truth About Health”, and I’ve run into many sleepless nights listening to the many people talking on that stage. I then bought and read books written by some of these people. Becoming Vegan was the first one. China Study was the second one. Early on, in my research, I concluded that diseases were induced by environmental pollutants, imbalances in nutrients, stress and trauma, all coupled up with a week genome. I highly recommend the movie called “The wisdom of trauma”, staring Dr Gabor Mate.

 I have made the decision to change my lifestyle 180 degrees overnight. I stopped eating animal by-products, and all the products made from the modern grains and their flours. I have also researched on the cleanest plant-based skin products and house cleaning products that I could find at that time. I even went back to gardening. I grew up, on a farm, in Eastern Europe, during the Communist Era, with no access to packed food (we grew all our food), and I moved to the Western world, 21 years ago, in pursue of happiness and greatness, running away from my family and my newlywed husband. 

Having been born with a liver challenge, my mum told me not to eat food made by other people, so I was never interested in packed food or restaurant food. I have even taken my blender with me, across the world, in all my travels, over the past nine years. I rarely spend time in a hotel. I prefer to hire an apartment that has a kitchen so that I can prepare my own meals, juices, and smoothies.

Despite all my efforts to live a clean life, the quality of my life was not improving much. I decided to take a step back from running my business and spend time with myself and my son. I continued to read as much as I could, trying to fix myself, in a world where everyone around me was telling me that it was impossible to fix myself. I semi-retired, in my late-thirties, and I continued to travel the world, for leisure. I spent all the school holidays, together with my son, mainly traveling abroad. 

In pursuit of happiness and greatness…

I only understood happiness and greatness when I travelled through Africa. At the end of the old tracks of the Dakar Rally, I finally found happiness, on the finishing line, just outside Banjul – the capital of The Gambia. What I loved the most was seeing the happy faces of Africa, with no worries in the world. There were children in the streets with no shoes and half-dressed and yet they were smiling, and they were happy. I stopped the car and attempted to have a conversation with them. Without thinking much, I asked them what made them so happy. They didn’t have an answer for me. It was part of their normal life to be happy. So, I continued the conversation, and asked them more questions until, out of nowhere, I said “If I was to have a magic wand and if I could wave it here in front of you and if my magic could make you happier, what should the magic wand reveal, right here, in front of us?”. The answer was, unanimously, “We want to go to a beautiful school”, and they began drawing in the sand how their beautiful school would look like. I told them to go to sleep that night and imagine that soon my magic would work, and they will have the beautiful school, and that they needed to keep in touch with me to tell me how the school needs to look like. I auctioned the car, at the end of the Dakar Rally, and I flew back to London, only thinking about going back to build the school. I always keep my promise, and I couldn’t have misled the children. And that is exactly what I did that year. I did everything I could to build the school for those children. When I went to open the school I was overwhelmed with joy. Something that I have never experienced before or after that event. The gratitude of the children, their families, and the entire community overwhelmed me. My legs were shaking as I was walking the sandy road towards the building, hugged by all the children around me. That day I understood what happiness and greatness looked like. Giving freely to others brought me enormous happiness, in return. So, I kept going, and built more schools, and water wells, and new communities.

My health continued to deteriorate further, despite the changes in my diet, my outlook on life, and despite finding this abundance of joy and happiness. I did one more car rally, across Europe, that year, and then I went back to various medical establishments asking questions about my poor health. I told them that I was semi-retired, that I had changed my lifestyle, and that I was incredibly happy, but that physically I was dying. I felt as if there was something inside me eating me alive. I experienced an extended abdomen for a few times, and I was reassured that it was a pre-menopausal symptom. It didn’t feel that way to me. I kept going to the next doctor and to the next doctor, and to the next doctor. All of them reassured me that there was nothing wrong with me, or that it was all made up in my head. In the end, I walked into a private hospital and demanded an endoscopy and a colonoscopy, on the spot, and requested to stay awake during the procedure, to see with my own eyes what was eating me out. 

The moment my heart missed a few beats…

As I was laying on the couch looking at the massive screen on the wall in the procedure room, the scope could no longer be pushed further. I could see a ball made up from tissues that was blocking my large intestine. The procedure stopped and I was taken to the recovery room. The next words I’ve heard were “You have a massive tumour inside your rectum. We have got in touch with a great surgeon, and we will discuss surgery, soon”. Cancer? How did I make cancer? I asked how bad it was. They answered: “Very bad”. Further scans showed a large cauliflower shape tumour in my abdomen. The tumour left the rectum and invaded all the nearby organs. The tumour was too large, and spread across too many organs to attempt surgery, without putting my life in danger. I was told that if nothing worked, life expectancy looked grim. “What do you mean if nothing works”, I asked. “You are not sure about how to save my life?”. “Well, this is cancer. There are no guarantees with this disease”, I was told.

The last fight…

I went back home that night, diving online, yet again, to learn about how to save my life, from cancer. There was no way I would allow my life to drift away, at the hands of these people who had no idea about what to do to save my life. This needed to be my fight. My last fight, the greatest fight, after fighting to recover my strength for the past three years. One more push, I told myself. When you are diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and you are told that there is a probability that you may die in six months’ time, there is a matter of urgency that gives you shivers down the spine. There is not much time to hang about. I figured out that I had at least six months to find my cure or at least to find a way to buy more time, until I find my cure. 

My life was changed forever that day. The reading and the research have never stopped since my cancer diagnosis, five years ago. I stopped working on the road, and dove into massive research, all the hours that I could stay awake. I scrolled over the PubMed database, I read 100s of cancer survivors stories online and on paper, and I made my own survival plan. 

One particular true story stroked a chord on me:

“The number one cause of death throughout most of the 19^th century was tuberculosis. Galen Clark went to Yosemite Valley to die of end stage tuberculosis at age 42 in the fall of 1856. His doctor told him that coughing up chunks of his lungs meant he had up to 2-6 months to live. There was no cure for this disease. Clark reasoned that “If I’m going to die soon, then I’m going to die in the Yosemite, the prettiest place I’ve ever seen.” He got happy. Scientist now say that happiness brings on the flow of endorphins, which supercharge our immune system and may slow down cancer.

Next, Galen Clark carved his own tombstone, thus accepting his mortality, a ritual that would give us a better appreciation of our finite time on earth. He then started eating what was available in Yosemite in those days; clean and lean wild game, mountain trout, nuts, berries, vegetables, and lots of clean water. No sugar and no dairy. He then began doing what he wanted to do, hiking, and creating trails, in the place he treasured the most, Yosemite Valley. He didn’t die 6 months later, but rather 54 years later, just shy of his 96^th birthday. He bolstered his “non-specific host defence mechanisms” with good thoughts and good nutrition.” (Beating Cancer with Nutrition, by Dr Patrick Quillin, 2005 edition, p.18) 

If Galen Clark succeeded in surviving end stage tuberculosis, over 100 years ago, then, surely, I would survive cancer, in the 21^st century. I have changed my diet further. I began to consume organic produce only, I started juicing green vegetables, I decided to eat mainly raw foods, and I did detox therapies, daily. I have also consumed sprouts and wheatgrass juice. I didn’t grow them to start with. Now, I do. 

The Oncology therapies were short lived, due to their toxicity. I couldn’t even do the full course of chemotherapy, as I ran into respiratory arrest after just a few sessions. That was scary. It was also my first encounter with death. I wasn’t scared of death. I was overwhelmed with sadness that I won’t see my son again. Thankfully, by the power of the Universe, I have recovered enough to carry on a few more tests and to run another scan that confirmed a shrinkage of the tumour by 80% which gave me access to surgery. Any further chemotherapy and radiotherapy were cancelled indefinitely. And so, after one more encounter with death, post-surgery, I left the hospital to go home, to recover. How do you do that? Nobody tells you how. It took a few months, before I could walk again. I kept in touch with a few cancer patients I’ve met during my stay in hospital. I lost the first one a few months later. He had the same type of cancer like me. He was diagnosed with a lower stage. We both had surgery the same week, we both did chemotherapy (he did double the number of sessions that I did), and we both were given the “all clear” on the same week. How come he was now dying? It was then when I learnt that cancer was not just a tumour but that it was a disease of the whole body.

Back to the drawing board…

I continued with my research into what causes cancer and how we can heal the body. I have also implemented everything I’ve learnt into my daily routine. During this research, I found a clinic in Germany that was specialized in reversing autoimmune diseases and environmental diseases. I made an appointment to meet the scientist in the clinic, and I asked him why I developed cancer. I thought that if I knew how I made cancer I could stop continuing making cancer. The veil was lifted, and little by little, with each test and with each conversation, we got to the bottom of it. I was excited to learn about how I developed cancer but overwhelmed at the thought that there was no quick fix, or that there might not be “a fix” on the Horizon. The Oncology team in the UK completely abandoned me for a while. Through a few more pushes, and a few complaints, I was referred to do a scan that confirmed recurrences. I was sent to see another surgeon, but I refused surgery after I was told of their grand plan: removal of the bottom part of the spine, removal of part of the sacrum bone, and the removal of the large intestine. “What for?”, I asked. Cancer is not just a tumour. “What are you going to do about the circulating tumour cells that are going to create new tumours, after you chopped half of my body?”, I asked. I received no answers.

Two more years have passed. I continued my journey with my new lifestyle, to the best of my knowledge, and I continued with the integrative therapies I learnt about from my research.

Oncology is the medical term for the science and the study of cancer care treatment. It is an art as well as a science and there are many styles of practice available to you. If it happens to be diagnosed with cancer, I highly recommend building a survival team around you. Apart from an expert in Oncology, employ experts in integrative and functional medicine, and even a specialist in Naturopathic Oncology. These people are concerned about the person with cancer, and they will approach body healing and even a cure from different angles. 

The best chance of increasing the survival rates for today’s cancer epidemic is to put together all the current healing arts and knowledge about natural remedies, drugs, foods, emotions, spirituality, relationships into an integrated plan that will take the cancer patient onto a journey of healing the whole body. 

Alternative therapies are not either/or therapies but integrative therapies that will support the body along the healing journey. We cannot heal from taking drugs alone, or from undergoing Radiotherapy, or from undergoing surgery. They might remove a symptom – a tumour. They won’t heal the body. 

The body has an innate gift of healing itself. We need to support this process, by nourishing our body, our mind, and our spirit. 

I decided to study lifestyle medicine with the Hippocrates Wellness of Health (HHI), in Florida, to learn more about how to heal my body but also to learn about how to pass on my knowledge to other people.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the HHI lifestyle together with my curious mind and my go – get – action – follow through attitude have allowed my body to heal from all corners. While physically I am not strong enough, just yet, after undergoing the debilitating Oncology therapies, mentally I am at peace, spiritually I am much more aware of everything is going on around me, and I am more in touch with myself. 

I have reversed my autoimmune diseases.

Now, I get to witness how my life transformation journey has impacted the people around me, family, friends, and social media followers. I get goose bumps, every time someone sends me pictures with sprouts or their health journey progress, with the message “I followed your instructions and I made these” or “because of you, I reversed my diabetes”, and so on.

Moving on…

Going from a life and death situation to thriving and living life to the full has been quite a journey. I am grateful for this journey. It taught me how to go back to nature and how to live with nature. We come from nature. There is no better place to being alive and well than in the middle of nature.

After mentoring a few chronically ill patients and friends, on their journey to health, I am now ready to share my knowledge with the world.

This year, I am in the process of publishing my first book with the title “How to live an extraordinary life with cancer”, because my focus is on living, and not on cancer. I am not stressed about having the tumours. We can definitely live the happily ever after a cancer diagnosis, with or without the tumours. 

I run my own social media blog, to inspire people on how to live a healthy life: https://www.facebook.com/ElenaEdwardsHowToLiveAnExtraordinaryLifeWithCancer

My son has approached me to start a live food sprouting business, together, so that we can share our live foods with our local community. 

I am also in the process of setting up my very own holistic cancer coaching practice from an extension part to my home, where people can come to visit me, and we can share knowledge and fears in a holistic environment, and even experience some of the holistic therapies that I am using. 

We are currently running ourselves to our graves, young. We are eating ourselves alive. Most of us don’t even realize this. 

I am here to show the world that there is another way. I want to make the world aware of what is out there, potentially, and that there is more than one answer to any health challenge, and that the answer may not always come from medical science, as we know it, the so-called Modern Medicine. 

Awareness is the first step.

I am not the specialist. The body is already the specialist. The body is our healer. If we eat right, if we drink right, if we think right, if we exercise right, if we remove the stress out of our life, we can prevent diseases and we can even put life-challenging diseases into remission.

This message needs to be passed on.

The time is NOW!

Elena 

The post Hope on the Horizon appeared first on Hippocrates Wellness.

After many dozens of years of research we have definitively determined that the quality of your life and your health is completely within your control. We have scientifically validated and reconfirmed the power of consuming raw plant food and its phenomenally positive impact on human health. More often than not, disease is prevented and eliminated, and premature aging halted largely due to the raw, whole food, plant-based diet that we prescribe in our signature Life Transformation Program. But, apart from taking up permanent residence here at the “World’s Premier Health Encounter” how can you best implement this lifestyle once you graduate from the program? 

Eating Healthy at Home

Here are some easy tips and suggestions to introduce your family to the power of raw, whole food, plant-based diet:

• Clean out your kitchen of any animal products, junk food, processed food, soda, sweets, coffee, cooked food, candy, cookies. Pretty much anything that is in a can, bottle, box, bag, or jar that does not have to be refrigerated, has artificial preservatives added, and has a long expiration date should go.

• If you do not already have them set up your kitchen with the right equipment including a high quality blender (I recommend the Vitamix), a high quality juicer (I recommend the Omega 900HD), a food processor, and a dehydrator.

• Learn how to make delicious raw vegan recipes. You have to learn to love the food or it will not be sustainable to eat this way in the long term. We offer several excellent raw vegan recipe books in the Hippocrates store for your consideration. We also offer Saturday classes to outside visitors here at Hippocrates on gourmet raw vegan cuisine preparation. Our next class is on December 17, 2016.

• Based upon the new raw vegan recipes you have just learned, stock up your refrigerator with fresh, whole, ripe, raw, organic produce, nuts, seeds, and herbs.

• Make a big, fresh salad as the “main course” of every meal. Learn how to make delicious, healthy homemade salad dressings from one of our recipe books.

• Learn how to grow your own sprouts at home! It is easy, economical, and fun! Kids love to get involved in sprouting. And, you are feeding yourself and your family the most nutritious food on the planet for under one dollar a pound! Sprout bags work great for growing sprouts while on the road. They fold up flat so they do not take up any space and there is no glass to break. You can grow sprouts in your hotel room by hanging your sprout bag up by the shower curtain. The Easy Sprouter comes with a flat lid with holes in it designed specifically for growing sprouts while travelling. This way your sprouts can still breathe with no danger of spilling. Add sprouts to every salad and use your sprouts for snacks. Sprouting is easy, does not cost much, and does not take a lot of space if it is done correctly. We offer an excellent sprouting book and DVD in the Hippocrates store for your consideration. We also offer Saturday classes to outside visitors here at Hippocrates on how you can easily grow sprouts at home. Our next class is on December 17, 2016.

• Make a fresh green drink and wheatgrass juice and drink them every day.

Eating Healthy Outside the Home

With some prior planning you can still enjoy eating healthy outside the home while enjoying the company of your co-workers, friends and family. Here are some tips and suggestions to best achieve this goal:

• Google raw vegan restaurants, health food stores and juice bars near your home, place of work, and travel destinations. Make these establishments your preferred choices for eating out. Most health food stores and grocery stores will offer salad bars where you can eat healthy. The web site HappyCow.com will list and rate healthy restaurants, juice bars, health food stores, and even vegetarian/vegan bed and breakfasts around the world.

• Even conventional restaurants will almost always offer a garden salad as a side dish or as a starter. Sometimes I order two and make it a meal. Ask the waiter for additions such as avocado, red bell pepper, cucumber, onions, etc. to spruce it up. Ask for some lemon wedges, oregano flakes and some olive oil and make your own healthy dressing. I sometimes smuggle into the restaurant an avocado and a bag of home-grown sprouts that I can discreetly add to my salad.

• Drink lots of water to help fill you up before you go out. Thirst is often mistaken for hunger. By drinking some water you may find you do not need to eat as much food in order to feel full.

• When you are invited to a friend’s house for a gathering prepare your favorite raw vegan dish ahead of time and take it with you to share with others. This way you will be assured that you will have something healthy to eat.

• When traveling overnight and choosing accommodations, request a room with a kitchenette or at least a refrigerator. This will allow you to stop at a grocery store or health food store ahead of time and bring some fresh healthy whole foods back to the room with you to have later.
• Finally, you may want to consider preparing and eating something healthy at home to at least partially fill you up before you go out.

For social support consider immersing yourself in the healthy eating world by attending raw vegan dinners and potlucks and “un-cooking” classes. If there are none in your area you can start hosting raw vegan potlucks at your home. Get involved in the local raw food community by joining raw food meetup groups in your area where you can make new friends. You can find such groups at meetup.com.

This Holiday season why not give yourself the gift of the best health ever by coming here to the Hippocrates Wellness and treating yourself to our world renowned Life Transformation Program? Your body will thank you and your friends and family will thank you, too. You will add many quality years to your life enabling you to have more fun and achieve more of your dreams. I wish every one of you a happy Holiday season and a long, healthy, productive, and fulfilling life.

Get Your Consultation and Learn More

The post Live Your Healthiest Holiday Season appeared first on Hippocrates Wellness.

• PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls). Risks: Cancer, impaired fetal brain development.
• Pesticides. Risks: Cancer, Parkinson’s disease, miscarriage, nerve damage, birth defects.
• Herbicides. Risks: Cancer, heart disease, asthma, multiple sclerosis, diabetes.
• Plastics. Risks: Endocrine system damage (plastics chemically mimic hormones)
• Formaldehyde. Risks: Cancer, eye and respiratory tract irritation, headaches, dizziness, visual disorders, and memory impairment.
• Dioxins. Risks: Cancer, reproductive and developmental disorders, chloracne (a severe skin disease with acne-like lesions), skin rashes, skin discoloration, excessive body hair, mild liver damage.
• Asbestos. Risks: Cancer, scarring of the lung tissue, mesothelioma (a rare form of cancer).
• Heavy Metals (lead, mercury, etc.) Risks: Cancer, neurological disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, foggy head, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, decreased production of red and white blood cells, abnormal heart rhythm, damage to blood vessels.
• Chloroform. Risks: Cancer, potential reproductive damage, birth defects, dizziness, fatigue, headache, liver and kidney damage.
• Chlorine. Risks: Sore throat, coughing, eye and skin irritation, rapid breathing, narrowing of the bronchi, wheezing, blue coloring of the skin, accumulation of fluid in the lungs, pain in the lung region, severe eye and skin burns, lung collapse, reactive airways dysfunction syndrome (RADS) (a type of asthma).

The human body is perfectly capable of dealing with limited exposure to many of these toxins within a given time frame. However, once you come into contact with and ingest more of these toxins than you can cope with, your body has no choice but to store those toxins until a later date when hopefully you clean up your act. Typically, these toxins are stored in fat cells but they may also be stored in your muscles, organs, and other tissues.

So, maybe it’s been a long time since some of you have eaten:

• 100% organic
• 100% plant-based
• 100% raw
• 50% living foods (sprouts)
• Each of these four protocols is extremely important in and of itself. When you combine all four of these protocols as you will here in the Hippocrates Life Transformation Program, you come up with a super-charged package for enabling the body to restore its own natural vibrant health. Plus, you are drinking purified water while you are here on campus. You are on a fragrance-free and a chemical-free campus. We use salt and ozone to clean the pool and Jacuzzi waters and keep them pure. We have scalar energy devices hidden throughout the campus to protect you from harmful electromagnetic radiation, Wi-Fi, routers, and cell phones.Your body thanks you for your pure diet and pure environment by cleaning house first. That means getting rid of stored toxins. These toxins can make a little trouble on their way out. Detoxification manifests itself in different ways depending upon your history.

Detox symptoms can include:

• Tiredness
• Headache for no apparent reason
• Nausea
• Joint/muscle aches and pain
• Pimples, rash or other skin eruptions
• Temporary cold- or flu-like symptoms
• Emotional

Whether or not a person experiences detox symptoms and the severity depends on many factors – previous diet, exposure to environmental toxins, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, prescription drugs, stress, sleep patterns, etc. This is exactly the same effect as the more familiar “withdrawal” some people experience when trying to come off of certain addictions such as alcohol, cigarettes or drugs. And, it happens for exactly the same reason. You eliminate toxins through four channels: breath, skin, urine and bowels. When you fast, or eat 100% organic, plant-based, raw, and living foods the body has extra energy. It uses that extra energy to push the toxins out of the body quickly. When the toxins start coming out faster than you can eliminate them through the normal channels we commonly get a detox reaction. The best way to reduce or eliminate detox symptoms is to give these four channels a little help. Here are some of the methods that we can use to accomplish that:

• Drinking lots of purified water and fresh green drinks
• Drinking fresh wheatgrass juice
• Rebounding
• Breathing exercises
• Yoga
• Exercise (any form)
• Infrared sauna
• Steam room
• Anything that makes you sweat a great deal (Jacuzzi, regular sauna, etc.)
• A very warm Epsom salts bath
• A very warm powdered ginger bath
• Lymphatic massage
• Enemas and colon hydrotherapy

If you use some or all of these protocols you will reduce or completely eliminate any uncomfortable detox reaction. As a last ditch effort eating a handful of raw soaked nuts or seeds or having some toasted Manna bread will also slow down the detox reaction.Chlorella, blue-green algae, and LifeGive® Internal Cleanser are three supplements that can also reduce the negative side effects of detox. The reward for working through this process and getting all the toxins out is a new, vibrant, radiant, and healthy you! Come to Hippocrates to detox and experience new levels of health you never thought possible.

The post Why and How We Detox appeared first on Hippocrates Wellness.

We humans are a progressive race. Here in America, majority rules and the majority of us are not well. However, each one of us makes daily choices that will sustain us, to at least some degree. More and more of us are selecting greener options, buying organic, educating ourselves on how food gets from farm to table today and making informed, responsible choices. Food should make us feel good for more than a few moments and market trends support these advances in health and sustainability. As we elevate our standards of what fuels us, a new dimension of pleasure is achieved. The senses are still pleased with aroma, taste, texture and sight. Just knowing that the body is being fueled properly on a cellular level with food that only perpetuates good feelings, is a satisfaction that no guilty pleasure can fill.

Pure health lies in pure happiness and pure food.

Eat well, live well and be well.

The post Transitioning to the BEST Diet Choices appeared first on Hippocrates Wellness.

According to geneticist Richard Cawthon and his colleagues at the University of Utah the causes of aging in persons over the age of 60 can be narrowed down to these four factors:

• Telomere shortening                    4%
• Oxidative stress                           44%
• Glycation                                      46%
• Chronological age                         6% 

Telomere Shortening (4%)

Telomeres are sequences of nucleic acids extending from the ends of chromosomes and acting to maintain their integrity. Think of it as the little plastic tip on the end of your shoelaces. Every time a cell replicates itself the plastic tip gets a little shorter. The telomeres that translate the information required to replicate an identical youthful cell are shortened–creating a “lost in translation” scenario that leads to the cellular damage and ultimate cellular death and is we call “aging.”

The rate of telomere shortening in humans varies from person to person. Therefore, you might consider this factor as genetic or something we inherit from our parents. But, is the rate of telomere decay something we can change? Scientists have recently discovered an enzyme called “telomerase” that can not only slow down telomere shortening but, actually reverse it. This enzyme is found in humans and also in certain plants.

Dr. Dean Ornish found in his research that just three months on a whole-food, plant-based diet, coupled with exercise, could significantly boost telomerase activity. This is the only intervention that had been shown to do so. In a five year follow up study he found that those who changed their diet and lifestyle to healthier options actually grew their telomeres while those who did not in a control group predictably saw their telomeres shrink with age.

Oxidative Stress (44%)

Oxidants are highly reactive substances containing oxygen which cause free radical damage to DNA, proteins, and lipids (fats.) Free radicals steal electrons/energy and are called acidic or oxidizing (which means to burn up, break down, rust, decay.) A free radical is an unstable molecule that is missing an electron making it unstable and deficient in energy. Free radicals cause cellular damage which can lead to wrinkles and dry, sagging skin and they pre-maturely age you. While smoking is a primary source of free radicals they also come from drinking alcohol, air pollution, radiation, stress, coffee, processed food and food cooked above certain temperatures

Free radicals are like energy vampires which attack and snatch energy (electrons) from other cells to satisfy themselves thereby making new free radicals. This chain reaction process continues until these free radical energy vampires encounter an antioxidant which has extra energy in the form of spare electrons. The antioxidant will happily give up its spare electrons in order to neutralize the free radical. Things that are healthy contribute electrons/energy and are called alkalizing or reducing.

The “total antioxidant capacity” in foods is called the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC.) Foods that are high in phytonutrients such as chlorophyll, lycopene, and beta-carotene have the highest ORAC value. Foods that have the most phytonutrients are whole, raw sprouts, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices. These are the anti-aging foods. Here are the foods with the highest ORAC value:

Food & ORAC

Spices  (Cloves)                       314,446

Herbs (Oregano dried)            200,129

Chaga mushrooms                   110,400

Acai berry                               102,700

Goji berries                                25,300

Pecans                                       17,940

Beans                                          8,000

Pistachio nuts                              7,983

Plums                                          7,581

Lentils                                         7,282

Blueberries                                  6,552

Blackberries                                5,347

Garlic, raw                                  5,346

Cilantro                                       5,141

Raspberries                                  4,882

Almonds                                     4,454

Dill                                              4,392

Apples, red delicious                  4,275

Strawberries                                3,577

Cherries                                       3,365

Cabbage, red                               3,145

Broccoli                                       3,083

Pears                                            2,941

Lettuce, red leaf                          2,380

Alfalfa sprouts                            1,510

There are no antioxidants found in beef, chicken, fish, cheese, eggs, milk or any animal products.

Glycation (46%)

Chemical changes occurs when we apply heat to food. This creates acidic toxins including carcinogens, mutagens, and twisted proteins, twisted carbohydrates, and twisted fats. This results in Advanced Glycation End Products (AGE’s.)

Glycation happens when glucose, the main sugar we use as energy, binds to some of our DNA, proteins, and lipids, leaving them unable to do their jobs. The problem becomes worse as we get older, causing body tissues to malfunction, resulting in disease and accelerated aging. AGEs are also formed by high sugar consumption. The best way to avoid glycation is to eat a whole food plant-based minimally processed diet.

Chronological Age (6%)

There are certain risk factors that increase over time such as the accidental exposure to infectious diseases. These risk factors can be mitigated by doing things that will boost your immune system.

Calorie Restriction

Every single research study that has ever been conducted on longevity shows that calorie restriction increases lifespan. In fact, when the calorie intake is cut in half the lifespan of certain test animals doubles. And, when you cut the calories in half and fast one day a week the lifespan triples. Every time you eat food, even the most nutritious food, the digestive process causes some degree of oxidative stress on the body. Simple foods are easier to digest than complex foods. The simplest foods are plant-based. The higher you eat up the food chain the more difficult it is for the body to digest.

However, it is important to insure that you are getting enough vitamins, minerals, protein and essential fatty acids. If you are going to cut your calorie intake in half you must make sure you are eating a very nutrient rich diet. This type of diet is called the Calorie Restricted Optimal Nutrition (CRON) diet. The most nutritious food on land are sprouts. The most nutritious food in fresh water is blue-green algae, spirulina and chlorella. The most nutritious food in the ocean are sea vegetables.

Conclusion

When carefully examining all the factors that cause us to age it turns out that genetics play a very small role. We tend to inherit our parents habits more than we inherit their genes. The things that have the greatest impact on your biological age is diet and lifestyle. Foods with the most antioxidants have the greatest effect on reversing pre-mature aging in humans. Other lifestyle factors play an important role in longevity as well. In summary, here are the top ten natural anti-aging strategies:

• Eat a whole food plant based minimally processed diet
• Regular Fasting
• Blue-green algae, spirulina and/or chlorella
• Reduced stress
• Pure Water
• Exercise
• Sunshine
• Fresh Air
• Adequate Rest
• Positive Thinking

By Brian Hetrich

The post Anti-Aging Foods and Longevity Practices appeared first on Hippocrates Wellness.