THE STEPS TO STRESS REDUCTION
Through Honesty in Communication

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I. Steps to Stress Reduction: Graphic

II. Steps to Stress Reduction: Text

Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48

III. Definition of Terms

IV. Exercises to Increase Awareness

 

Chapter 45. A Medical Doctor Speaks Out

 

Since most people respect and listen to their medical doctor, let's see what one, an expert in both medicine and nutrition, has to say. According to Dr. Joseph D. Beasley, M.D., Director, The Medicine and Nutrition Project, The Bard College Center, Annadale-on-Hudson, New York, writing in "The Impact of Nutrition on the Health of Americans, A Report to the Ford Foundation" (1981),

"Metabolic, psychological, physical or environmental stress creates marked increase in the amounts of essential nutrients needed for maximum metabolic efficiency and stability...

Serious attention should be paid to the known role of nutrition in enabling the body's own defenses to function effectively against invading micro-organisms ... there is a widespread ignorance, confusion and controversy among Americans concerning the relationship of nutrition to health ...

(At the same time) there has been a significant change in the content and nutrient value of the American diet as of 1983 ... low nutrient-density foods not only deprive the human organism of essential requirements but crowd out other nutritious foods ... "empty calories" in the form of sugar and refined carbohydrates consume high levels of essential nutrients during their metabolism by the body ... the refortification of foods after they have been altered still leaves them seriously depleted of nutrients ...

Even when one may eat an adequate diet, nutrients are not necessarily absorbed properly by the body and hence made available to the cells ... the failure to have essential nutrients present on a twenty four hour basis for cellular metabolism means that necessary metabolic functions do not take place or take place at an inadequate level ... rarely, if ever, is a deficiency disease due to a single nutrient ...

The total number afflicted by chronic disease has increased markedly, and the age of onset has decreased ... if this tendency continues to accelerate at its present rate for another 20 years, American society will face serious impairment of its economic, political, social, religious, educational and cultural vitality.

Having examined this physical, mental and social trend for over 20 years, we have come to the conclusion that the major cause of this general phenomenon lies in what the majority of individuals and families consume daily through their present dietary practice ...

Routine approach to patient care must include their present dietary assessment of the nutritional status of the patient. To the extent feasible, the goal should be to nutritionally restore the patient before attempting to diagnose and prescribe therapy in the convention fields of chronic disease, whether physical or mental. Depending on biochemical individuality, nutritional restoration may at times include relatively high concentrations of specific vitamins."

 

Next: The Betrayal of Health by Dr. Joseph D. Beasley. M.D.

 

Stress Reduction Through Honesty in Communication by John Twelker, Copyright 1986, John Twelker Enterprises, Inc.