The Flu, Ribose, And All About Your Tongue

Hello again:

I thought I would inform all of you about another product I have discovered from Health Freedom Nutrition. It is called Ribose. According to the information on their website it is a cellular energy enhancer. This means that this simple sugar that is produced by the body is essential for the cells to work efficiently. Stress causes ATP (the food for the cells) to be depleted. Primary areas are the heart and skeletal muscles. When you do not have enough ribose your body does not recover from illness and injury as quickly. So this supplement is great for those with chronic fatigue syndrome, heart disease, fibromyalgia, or just have unexplained low energy.

I began looking at this supplement because I had chronic fatigue syndrome in my 20’s. I think I am fine but every time I go to the Chinese doctors they shake their head and are amazed that I have the energy that I do. I do take supplements every day and I am very good at exercising 4 to 5 times a week for an hour and a half. But according to the Doctors of Oriental Medicine I have very weak pulses (one of the measuring tools for DOM to diagnose and treat disease and disorders). So I am always looking for things to support my weak system. So I ordered this supplement last week and I received it on Friday. I promptly put some of this powdered product in my ginger tea and Wham! I suddenly had a jump-start of energy. Really! It was shocking. I take supplements all the time but to have such a quick reaction to one product definitely got my attention. So if you are tired and don’t seem to have the energy to get going give this one a try. You can go to:www.hfn-usa.com to order.

Continuing on the health front. Three weeks ago I got the flu shot and promptly got the flu three days later. Ugh! What misery. I can’t imagine how bad the regular flu is if this was a weakened version of the flu. I of course went to the Doctor of Oriental Medicine to get Chinese herbs to help me heal. I prefer to go the natural way. I use the medical approach as the last resort. Don’t get me wrong, I am so happy we actually have all the medicines and tools we have now. But I believe that if I can kick an illness naturally, it is better for my overall health. I believe that we over prescribe antibiotics. Why do that when we have access to wonderful herbs that can kick out most bad stuff.

Anyway so I went to Dr. Minghua Zhang here in Salt Lake City. She is great. She is an MD in China as well as a DOM. In America she is a DOM because she cannot take the medical boards in English, even though her English is very good. So, she has all the medical as well as oriental medicine backgrounds. This makes her very well rounded and able to know where herbs work and where you need medicine. She will refer you to the hospital if she thinks that Chinese herbs are not appropriate in your situation. I greatly respect that. She can be somewhat more expensive than the average but her herbs have always kicked any illness I have out.

She gave me a first round of herbs and to my shock and hers, I didn’t get a bit better taking them for a week. That was a first! That flu shot must have had a nasty bug in it. A week later she changed the herbs and I finally started to get better. Yea! But the process has taken me three weeks to get back to a relatively normal place. Ugh!

Anyway, she kept looking at my tongue and saying that when she looked at my skin (one way to determine someone’s health), I looked great. Then she looked at my eyes and they were clear, bright, and sparkling. Also a good sign of health. But when she looked at my tongue she couldn’t believe that my tongue was in my mouth. It belonged to someone else. It indicated that I was very weak and that my energy was tremendously low and I had way too much stress in my life.

Now, I do have a crazy schedule that would put most people under. I work from 9 AM to 7 PM every day. I work weekends three weeks a month and only have one weekend off per month to play catch-up. This is because I work in LA and Santa Barbara. So I loose two weekends a month that way. The other weekend I teach a class. The fourth weekend, on the Saturday I usually work for those clients who cannot come during the week and that leaves me one Sunday to kick back and regroup. Then I also lecture and teach for the TAO Institute. I do holiday parties such as Halloween and New Years celebrations. Which often go quite late. And I manage to play tennis 4 times a week to stay in shape and handle stress. So I defiantly use up a lot of energy and stress.

Now, I am not the Chinese doctor but according to Ming, if you can see teeth marks along the sides of your tongue you are congested and your energy is weak. Congested can mean that you are not eliminating well in your body. American diets are full of glutens that bog down the gut and make us more constipated. Americans also do not drink enough water and we get dehydrated because of all the caffeine and sodas we drink.

I personally try to drink a gallon of water a day to stay hydrated. Most of the time I do pretty good.

Your tongue is also supposed to be pink without any yellow or white coatings on it. It is also supposed to be shiny and slick looking. So now everyone can take a beginners look at your tongues and decide for yourself how your health might be faring. If you think something might be off. Go to a Doctor of Oriental Medicine and see if some herbs might pick you up.

When I saw this information about the Ribose. I thought it might help and it is. I am also taking Red Ginseng from Dr. Ming and Cordyceps (another tonifier for the Kidney and Liver). So, I am slowly but surely getting stronger. I am finally off to tennis this morning. It is the first time in three weeks. I was just too exhausted up until now.

Hope you are healthy and happy in his flu season. Take care.