Before we even got started for the day, our guide started to make some tea.
After I had finished packing and checking my equipment, he called me over.
“Have some. This will help you the higher we go.”
“Is this a root of some kind?” Maca root, which is also from Peru, can help you with altitude. But I hadn’t seen what he put in the tea.
“The leaves of the Ilex tree.”
Our guide had a degree in forestry and knew every plant and tree in the jungle and on the mountain. I think he was having a little fun with me, because when I brought the cup up to my nose, I knew what it was right away.
Party At My House
“Who doesn’t like hula dancers?”
“Well, it was kind of expensive to get them, so I thought I’d ask. And we’re already getting fire swallowers, a tiki bar and those white linen table cloths you wanted…”
It should be quite a birthday party. I’m turning 55 years old Friday, and I want to celebrate with my staff, family and friends at my home.
I’ve got my assistant S.D. working on all the details.
“What else do they offer for the buffet?”
There I Was With Almost No Clothes…
“I didn’t know you had cactus in Bali.”
I had never seen anything like it. I looked down at my bleeding calf. It had almost torn a hole in my only pair of shorts.
I hadn’t meant to walk into it, but I swear, you step off the sidewalk in Bali and you’re in the jungle.
I live in Florida but this was different. It was plants on top of plants. The thickest, densest green I have ever seen. When you’re in it, you know you’re on the other side of the world.
And here I was almost without any clothes.
I Almost Fell Over Backwards…
“This is a cananga flower…” Westi picked one off of the small tree behind his shop.
“That looks like ilang-ilang (ylang-ylang).”
“Yes. It is from the same tree family. Smell… it’s very fragrant.”
I took some of the yellowish green petals from Westi. “That’s beautiful.”
“The ilang-ilang tree is very tall. Cananga is small, so I can have one here by the shop. Lelir will use the flower to make Jamu.”
Jamu is the name for the ancient group of natural cures and medicines they use in Bali.
The Balinese don’t like pharmaceuticals, and don’t really trust Western-type medicine. So they…
“What Was Julia Roberts Like?”
The most famous man in Bali right now is Ketut Leyir. He’s the healer who became famous because he was in the book and movie Eat, Pray, Love.
The star of the movie was Julia Roberts, one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood these days, and probably the most famous.
I asked him about her. What she was like, and what is was like to know her. He laughed and said, “She very, very nice. Has great smile.”
Julia stayed there while they were filming Eat, Pray, Love, at a place close to Ketut’s home.
Get A Clearer Picture
He was nearly blind.
The pain in his eyes was so intense he thought he would go insane.
But he kept hiking, stumbling along over a small plateau high in the Rocky Mountains.
His sight was so far gone that he almost stumbled into two grizzly bear cubs and their enormous mother bear.
He was lucky he wasn’t attacked… and he knew he couldn’t walk much farther in the mountains and stay alive.
The prospector came to the mouth of a rocky pass, sat down and started sobbing. He was sure he was never going to see his family again.
As he sat there holding his throbbing head, he suddenly heard a voice behind him…
What Is That Pink Stuff?
I didn’t even get a chance to put my briefcase down at my desk.
My researcher K.D. just about ran into my office.
“Dr. Sears, do I have a story for you!”
K.D. doesn’t ever get excited, so I was kind of curious. “What happened?”
“Well, I went to Maine for my vacation this summer because my family lives up there. My cousin lives near Acadia National Park. Just down the road there’s a family that has an organic farm.
“Every year, they have a big party. Like a farm-to-table kind of thing. They raise money for charity and have a big tent for the dinner. My cousin’s never been able to go because she’s never had anyone to go with. So I drove over and we went to the party.
“Before the dinner they have a tour, and show you where all the crops come from, and all that. They raise cows there, too. Some are for milking and some are for … you know … eating.
“Before the tour they ask you if you want chicken of beef for dinner. I would usually have the chicken. But I thought, what the heck, I’ll try the beef …”
They’re So Naughty
What is it about oysters that makes them so enticing? Eating them gives me a “forbidden fruit” feeling.
Eating oysters is almost a little naughty… they have a slippery texture, and their salty-sweet smell mimics female pheromones. And the way you shuck and eat them can increase libido, too.
Too bad the government wants to scare you away from them. The Food and Drug Administration has all kinds of warnings about eating raw oysters.
As a matter of fact, if you own an establishment and you serve raw oysters, you have to put a warning sign up that says it’s not safe to eat raw food and you probably shouldn’t do it.
Have you seen those signs?
The PACE Party Drew A Full House
“How did you like your grand opening?”
“Fantastic!” My friend Avis was all smiles. “Dr. Sears, people are hugging me and thanking me…”
I knew we’d have a good turnout for the grand opening. But this blew me away. “It’s even better than I expected.”
As more people showed up, Avis would look at me and mouth, “O M G!”
We had 250 people in the new PACE Fitness by Avis studio, and the air conditioning almost couldn’t keep up.
Some of the people I met told me they drove over an hour – all the way up from Miami – to come to the opening.
Sweet, Pure Tropical Water
“Did I tell you he gave me a knife?”
“What is it? Like, a machete?”
My marketing manager C.S. knew I’d been hacking my way through the jungles of Bali.
“It’s called a Bali knife. It’s cooler than a machete. It’s like half knife, half hatchet. It’s got a big thick blade and a heavy handle to balance it out.”
“How’d you get that home?” she joked.
Of course, I just put it in my suitcase and checked it on the plane. I’m sure glad I didn’t put it in my carry-on and forget I had it in there. They’d probably still have me in Bali …
But … Will She Get Better Without Surgery?
“She needs to have it removed.”
“But she’s not dehydrated. She doesn’t have any tenderness or Murphy’s sign. She doesn’t have an acute abdomen …”
In fact, A.D. didn’t have any of the emergency symptoms they taught us in medical school.
“She must have colicystitis. She should have her gallbladder taken out.”
“Well, what’s the likelihood that if she doesn’t have it removed, that her gallbladder will recover?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
At first I thought he was joking. I suppressed my chuckling when I saw he wasn’t kidding. “You’re a GI specialist …”
“You don’t understand… I wouldn’t know if she’d recover because I’ve never seen anybody with these symptoms who I’ve sent to have their gallbladder removed who hasn’t had the surgery.”
“What?”
My New Daily Tonic
“Can you introduce yourself? Tell us who you are?”
The camera was rolling and I quickly set it down on the counter in front of her.
“Can you stop for one moment please? I’m sorry!” She looked straight into the camera and doubled over from shy, anxious laughter.
“Does the camera make you nervous?” I pushed the little red ‘stop’ button.
“Yes!” She covered her smiling face with the Jamu class schedule in her left hand. Now we both busted out laughing.
It’s no wonder she was nervous. She had just met me not ten minutes ago, and here I was putting her on film.
“Dr. Sears, We Got The Results!”
She burst into my office today with a stack of papers and folders.
I was on the phone, but I could see my friend A.N. just couldn’t wait to talk to me.
So I put the person on hold, and it all started pouring out of her.
“Dr. Sears, Dr. Sears, we got the results!”
Far from Nature
You know I believe that you should imitate our native ancestors and make a variety of protein the center of all your meals.
But it’s not ok to gobble down just any kind of protein. The type you eat is important, too. Or maybe I should say, the nature of the protein.
You see, protein is damaged by heat. You “denature” protein when you heat it for too long, or when you cook it in very high heat. The nature of the protein changes.
This is what happens when they process or “cure” meat. In fact, it’s how they sterilize medical supplies and instruments. They heat them to an extreme, which denatures proteins in any bacteria that may be there, destroying them.
I’d Rather Be Sick…
Buddhist monks live a strict life of depriving themselves. They don’t have any kind of sexual activity and try to stop themselves from even having any desires. They are not allowed to marry, or even touch a woman. Sex and lust are the most important things to avoid.
And do you know how they prevent all those sexual urges and desires?
They eat soy.
If that’s what you had to do to be healthy, I think I’d pass.
Put Three Critical Nutrients Back On The Menu
Hope you had a happy Fourth of July! Did you have a barbeque and throw a couple of steaks on the grill?
Don’t feel guilty if you did. Meat is one of the best sources of your most important nutrients.
Does your doctor try and make you feel bad about eating a big, juicy steak?
The diet advice that modern medicine prescribes is to replace meat with unnatural grains, corn and soy. But your body doesn’t recognize them as food because they don’t have the nutrients you need. And then doctors still try to tell you that you don’t need a nutritional supplement.
I’m Proud Of My High Cholesterol
Cholesterol does not cause heart disease. Cholesterol is what heart disease acts upon.
Cholesterol is a good thing. The more you have, the longer you’ll live.
In fact, the prestigious medical journal The Lancet did a study that looked at 724 people and followed them for 10 years. Researchers found that higher cholesterol meant a lower chance of dying from any cause.1
Cholesterol is a part of your body, and it’s a bad idea to declare war on a part of your body.
Unfortunately, many people who rely on mainstream medicine for health information haven’t gotten the message.
The way modern medicine treats cholesterol is the same as saying, “You have Alzheimer’s disease, let’s cut off your head.” It’s like if you come to me to have your bone mineral density measured, and I say, “We’ve found a problem with your bones. We have to take them out.”
Use This “Royal” Food For Better Performance
There I was high in the Andes Mountains in Peru in an area the locals called Puna. It was barren and covered with rocks. The plants were all stunted. I didn’t see any that were higher than about a foot tall. It was so windy it almost knocked me off my feet a few times.
Fortunately, the day was clear and beautiful… but I knew we would be going up over 10,000 feet, so I was careful before I went. I used a native root to help me get used to the thin mountain air.
I was the only one in our party who didn’t get what the locals call soroche, or altitude sickness.
I used it again when I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, and I was the only one on that expedition who didn’t get altitude sickness.
The root I used is called maca, and it turns out that not only does the plant it comes from adapt to high altitude, but when you eat it, the root passes that ability on to you.
It does more than just help you adjust to altitude, though. Peruvian maca has the remarkable property of improving oxygen transport in your body. This increases endurance, energy levels, and mental clarity.
It’s one of the only foods that can survive the frost at high altitudes. It even grows faster as the temperature gets colder. It grows low to the ground, and huddles together making mats on the ground.
Part of the reason maca is so effective at improving the way you use oxygen is its malic acid. It helps cells use sugar for fuel when oxygen levels are low.
Living high up in the Andes is tough, and oxygen is scarce. At 14,000 feet, your oxygen levels are going to be low. Maca is also rich in iron, which you need to make blood and facilitate oxygen transport.
But even if you’re not climbing up into high altitude, you can benefit from maca during other activities. Maca would be great to use before you go skiing. Or you can use it before you work out. Ancient Peruvians fed maca to their armies to improve endurance and stamina.
Or how about if you go snorkeling? If you take maca, you can go down deeper in the water because your body is going to get better oxygenation.