My journey towards health began when in my early twenties and living in excruciating pain. The pain in my right leg was so intense I could not sleep nor could I find any position of comfort. My leg ached whether I was standing, sitting or laying down. My ankles swelled to the size of my knees. Sleep was a luxury unknown to me, and usually arrived only as a result of the exhaustion created by the lack of three previous night's sleep.

The medical community was unable to offer much help or hope. My Doctor recommended that I begin a daily regiment of 7 aspirins per day, which resulted in my literally turning green and yellow from showering, and I developed ringing in ears. And, when taking aspirin made no difference in my pain, a year later, surgery was the option presented to me. I didn't fault the doctors; they were only following their own training.

My surgery involved the stripping and ligation of veins in my leg and I hobbled around for 6 weeks. My leg was a deep maroon color from all of the displaced blood, not mention four incisions. Once the "healing" was complete, I was in even more pain. After a year of this, there was still no improvement. I then went back to the doctor who had since retired and referred me to another doctor, which was a life altering event and experience.

My new doctor was very educated about vitamins and minerals and the body’s ability to heal itself. Now, thirty years ago, this was a very progressive medical practitioner! He ran a series of tests on my vascular system and told me that I had a heredity condition where the portals in the veins did not close sufficiently to push the blood upward on a return cycle. He said I had two choices: one, keep my life the same and come in every two years for more surgery (eventually they would begin to use plastic replacement parts) or two, change my entire lifestyle, way of eating and avoid surgery for five years. When I chose the second option, he looked honestly shocked! He told me that most people never choose that, but I just could not imagine assaulting my body by cutting it up again.

This doctor handed me a list of foods to eliminate entirely from my diet: caffeine, cheese, high sodium foods, refined sugars and preservatives! While I knew this wasn't going to be easy, I set out to find this new world of nutrition. Thirty years ago this was definitively an adventure in the wilderness. I read every book I find on natural approaches to the healing and nutrition. I began to slowly eliminate the foods on his list over a six months period and then refined it again. In addition to regaining my health and sleep, my immune system improved. (I was highly anemic as a child and the family joke was that if you called me with a cold, I had it before we hung up!)

The more I read, the greater clarity I received on how the body actually worked. What I did not know then, was that there were emotional and energetic components to my body's imbalance and that my body was attempting to get my attention. You see, I discovered that the western medical approach to health tended to favor masking symptoms instead of searching for the causes. As I read books on other healing approaches such as homeopathy, herbals, nutrition, and Chinese Medicine, I realized that all cultures without the influence of Western Medicine do not even name disease; they simply consider it an imbalance. One of my favorite quotes became: "An absence of symptoms is not an absence of dis-ease.”

I learned that a person’s lifestyle is considered an integral part of their healing, in addition to the underlying cause of the dis-ease. And, as a result of this experience, I surpassed the level of any health I ever had. Now, I do not even experience colds. I only experience fatigue as a result of really pushing myself and now I know how to rebalance quickly.

I am frequently asked how I maintain my vitality. My answer is contined in my daily health regiment:

1. I realize the importance of the quality of water so I drink alkaline water. I have a glass of this water upon rising.
   
2. In the morning, I go to my refrigerator and pull out my favorite vegetables and fruits and leave them out while I exercise to take the chill off. Food is much more able to be assimilated when it is neither too hot, nor too cold.
   
3. I start my day with some tai chi to build my energy field and balance myself. And, I have added several favorite yoga exercises that cleanse the blood and balance the intestines.
   
4. I use focused meditation and affirming thoughts about the flow of my day’s activities. (On days when I either cut this process short or skip it, I notice a substantial difference in the way the day goes or should I say doesn’t go.
   
5. I then make my juice either in the juicer or in my Vita Mix Blender. I also drink a seasonal tonic with a dash of liquid cayenne. I may add some raw nuts if I sense that my body needs some extra protein.
   
6. Lunch is usually fruit and nuts.
   
7. I drink teas throughout the day. One of my favorite blends is a Chinese herbal tea called Stop Smoking (which balances the liver and spleen and opens up the lungs) and an antioxidant tea. In the afternoon I have a Kidney tea.