Nails Are As Important As Any Of Your Body Part

I gave a health seminar once, and a woman sitting in the front row kept looking at my hands. At the end of the seminar she approached and told me that her mom had always told her that the health of someone’s nails was the key indicator of internal health. Luckily my nails were well groomed for that seminar. I have always remembered to clean my nails before every lecture since that day!

The nails truly are an indication of how well we absorb minerals. If nail ailments have set in, such as ingrown, splitting, soft, spotting, or ridged nails, then the mineral richness of The Beauty Diet will work wonders. Nail health is the result of the proper mixture of the beautifying foods silica (Orgono living silica, horsetail extract) and MSM.

Fungus under the finger or toenails is an external sign of an internal imbalance of good and bad bacteria in the intestines. It is often an outward manifestation that bad bacteria and fungus rule the internal environment of the body (or at least did when the infection occurred). Someone who has chronic fungal infection under the nails may also have a candida (yeast overgrowth) internally. One-half a dropper-full of pau d’arco alcohol tincture can be droppered on the nail, under the nail (as best as possible), and on the first and second knuckle of the affected finger after the area has been cleaned. The area must then be “painted” with a few drops of DMSO (dimethyl-sulfoxide), which drives the pau d’arco deep into the nail and skin (avoid liberal usage, as DMSO can burn when used excessively). It will take three to six weeks to begin to see noticeable results. As you stay with this topical program you will be able to fight back the fungus and eventually be victorious. Both pau d’arco alcohol tincture and DMSO are available in health food stores.

Some anticandida advice you can act on immediately is to include Pure Synergy each and every day (in quantities beginning at 1 tablespoon per day and increasing up to 3 tablespoons per day after two months). Also, probiotic capsules should be taken each day, starting with one and building up to six each day. Add 3,000–5,000 mg of camu camu berry powder to the diet. All high-carbohydrate, sugar-based foods, especially dried fruit, seedless fruit, soda, candy, bread, pasta, baked potatoes, potato chips, corn chips, and rice, should be eliminated from the diet. Eat nothing sweeter than a hard pear or tart apple. Coconut oil and good-quality avocados should be eaten as primary fat sources. Mercury-free fish and hemp seed should be eaten for protein.

The habit of nail biting is related to an alkaline mineral deficiency and parasites (worms) in the system. In this case I recommend more herbs, green-leafy salads, and a parasite cleanse,

Take Care Of Your Hair

Our hair is an agricultural crop that has its roots in the blood-enriched lymphatic soil beneath the skin. The most important aspect of rehabilitating hair is to cleanse, purify, and nourish the body, blood, and lymphatic system. To maintain healthy hair, adequate nutrition and blood flow to the hair roots is necessary. The primary cause of hair loss and premature graying is a lack of nourishment for renewing the living hair follicle.
A deficiency of one trace mineral, tin, can contribute to male pattern baldness. For male pattern baldness, one food stands out strongly due to its extraordinary level of tin: the schizandra berry, the five-flavor fruit from Chinese medicine. This tiny fruit is extremely potent, so just thirty to forty of these berries a day is sufficient.

Just like our bones, organs, and muscles, our hair follicles must receive adequate nutrition. Malnourishment of the hair follicle is primarily caused by the clogging of the fine capillaries with mucus from mucus-forming foods (pasteurized dairy products, cooked grains [especially wheat], cooked animal fat, and cooked polyunsaturated oils). If we want a good hairline, the important thing for us to have is excellent circulation to allow nutrients to flow to the hair follicle. Toxicity and the sensitivity of a man’s hair follicles to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) are related; the greater the toxicity, the greater the DHT-related loss of hair follicles with age.

Eating a raw-food-based diet may not be enough to restore damaged hair follicles—our diets must be well-considered, raw, mineral-rich, and nutrient-dense to achieve the extraordinary result we are seeking. Healthy hair requires specific protein-building amino acids and sulfur in the diet because hair is almost entirely made up of protein (97%). These factors can be found in hemp seeds, spirulina, superfood blends such as the Pure Synergy superfood formula, and eating a wide variety of organic vegetables and their juices. Animal protein is abrasive, inflammatory, and clogging; therefore it is a poor choice as a hair nutrient.

MSM forms the sulfur bonds between proteins. It also increases the assimilation of protein. One of the first things you will discover after taking MSM is that your hair growth will be stronger and more vigorous.

— Hair Care—

There is a wide variety of state-of-the-art, organic, cruelty-free hair care products, shampoos, conditioners, and sprays. These products are typically made of minerals, essential oils, and herbs and are great for chemically sensitive individuals. Look for brands that are non-allergenic and contain no sodium lauryl sulfates. Excellent hair care should nourish the skin and follicles from the outside, complementing excellent internal nutrition.

—Facial Hair—

For men, facial hair is of importance too. When I became a raw-foodist, the hair on my face turned to its natural brown/red color whereas before, it had always been dark brown. Since I started including MSM in my morning water, my facial hair now grows with surprising vigor and strength.

Usage Of Soap And Skin Damage

Skin damage can be caused by years of abusing alkaline soaps and other skin products. The excessive use of commercial soaps and shampoos strips away the skin’s oil, damages skin pigments, and removes skin moisture, leaving the skin dry, faded, and coarse.

The skin generally thrives at a slight acidic pH. The extreme alkalinity of soaps disrupts this delicate pH balance. Soap is particularly harsh on people who have dry skin. If you have dry skin, be sure that you avoid washing your face with soap.

According to my research, soap likely had its origins in ancient Babylonia (2800 BC), where a formula for soap consisting of water, alkali, and cassia oil was written on a cuneiform clay tablet. The Ebers papyrus (1500 BC) indicates that the Egyptians mixed alkaline salts with oils in order to create a type of soap. The word “soap” (Latin sapo) was first mentioned in Europe in Pliny the Elder’s Historia Naturalis. Soaps similar to what we have today were originally produced by Islamic chemists. These soaps were made from olive oil, aromatic oils, and lye (al-Soda al-Kawia). The Persian chemist Al-Razi wrote a manuscript of recipes for soap.

The advent of soap followed on the heels of a major increase in cooked animal food and cooked oil in the diet. The residues of cooked fat come through the pores as a smelly, thick, waxy fluid that is difficult to wash off without soap. Once one switches to a plant-based diet, the oils coming through the skin are purer, have less odor, and are easier to wash off.

Diluted lemon juice or diluted raw apple cider vinegar are simple soap substitutes. To make a cleansing liquid, add one tablespoon of lemon juice or raw apple cider vinegar to 6–8 fluid ounces (180–240 ml) of warm water.

I do not rely on soaps or soap substitutes. I mainly clean my skin by dry-skin brushing using a moderately firm, natural-fiber brush, and then rinsing using warm, not hot, purified water or hot springs water. Dry brushing exfoliates dead skin cells and stimulates the lymphatic system.

The caution put forth against putting oils directly onto the face is only valid when the skin is very oily, damaged and/or absorption is poor. As long as the oils are cold-pressed (raw) and they agree with the individual, then putting cacao butter (best choice), hemp oil, olive oil, grapeseed oil, or coconut oil onto the face can provide wonderful benefits to the skin without clogging the pores.

How to Manage Acne The SMARTER Way

Acne is mainly caused by a poor fat/oil digestion and assimilation metabolism. This means the liver is not capable of fully metabolizing all the fat and oil entering the system. The skin and the liver reflect each other like a mirror. A breakout of the skin, acne, is an indicator of problems with the liver—in particular with the processing of fats, and especially cooked fats.

Facial and skin acne are almost always associated with eating cooked oil (margarine, hydrogenated oil, cooked polyunsaturated oils, etc.). Cooked oils and margarine are probably the most difficult of all cooked foods to break down and metabolize. They require a significant level of liver energy. Cooked oils and margarine are often incompletely broken down and end up clumping in the blood stream, clogging fine capillaries, causing hormonal imbalances and acne.

Along with cooked oil and margarine, the intake of cooked animal fats, roasted nuts and seeds, as well as pasteurized dairy products can all be decreased, and then eliminated. Raw plant-based fats and oils can replace cooked fats and oils. This will do wonders.

Even when eating raw foods, one may find that the excessive intake of raw fats and oils will cause pimples (yet these will be comparatively minor).

Simultaneously, while the cooked fats and oils are switched to raw choices, the liver may be strengthened by eating green-leafy vegetables, undertaking herbal cleansing and fasting, and adding MSM to the diet.
One thing I have noticed amongst people with chronic acne, breakouts, and trouble with their facial skin is that they have a habit (often unconscious) of constantly touching and picking at their face. This introduces foreign dirt and oils, thus making the situation worse. One of the primary ways to maintain healthy facial skin is to avoid touching one’s face with the dirty, oily palm surface of the fingers and hands.

If you have troubles with your complexion, pay close attention to any subconscious habits of touching the face. I only touch my face with the back of my hands. As a youth I picked up the habit of using the backside of my hand to scratch my face or wipe things from my lips or cheeks. I have never had acne.

Another major causative factor in acne is thinking too much about a particular relationship. Releasing confined emotions and stress surrounding a past or present relationship can do wonders to rid an individual of acne. Emotional issues are often involved with acne. Suppressed anger accentuates an acne condition.
Acne may also be caused by skin damage (the outer layer of skin may be thickened, which contracts the pores and does not allow them to breathe). If this is the case, enzymatic exfoliation (a papaya mask) or similar exfoliation treatment will be helpful. Someone with this type of damaged skin should avoid facial exposure to the sun and should also avoid putting oils on the face, as absorption is poor.

On hot days, since the earliest times I can remember, I often ate grapefruits. As a child I began to intuitively rub the inner surface of these fresh grapefruit peels on my face. I have noticed over the years that this not only has a cooling effect, it also has a skin-cleansing effect. Grapefruit peels make for a great skin cleanser; they lift dirt right off your skin. The exfoliating, cleansing properties of grapefruit are likely due to alpha-hydroxy acids, which are also found in sugar cane and many other fruits.

How Our Skin Is Damaged

—How the Skin Is Damaged—

Our skin is made supple and beautiful by collagen. Collagen is a long-living protein that is subject to free-radical (unstable oxygen) attack. A chemical change in the collagen (called cross-linking) due to free-radical exposure leads to hidden inflammation, calcification, and eventually wrinkles and damaged skin.

Free-radical damage causes a change in the lipid characteristics of the outer layer of the epidermis. These lipid characteristics are often improved and healed by applying healing oils such as hemp oil, stone-crushed olive oil and/or coconut oil directly to the skin daily, if appropriate and necessary. Another option is to do nothing to the skin for several weeks or months in order to let the skin breathe and allow the natural balance to be restored.

The primary causes of free-radical collagen damage and skin aging are poor nutrition, internal toxicity, dehydration, overexposure to sunshine, using commercial chemical soaps, smoking, bathing in hard tap water, exposure to extremely dry and cold weather, and fungal invasion.

Facial wrinkles are deepened by the free radicals caused by smoking. Crow’s feet wrinkle patterns around the eyes and on the upper lip are indicative of smoking marijuana and/or cigarettes.

Our skin’s health depends greatly on the presence and retention of moisture. The epidermis (the top, thin layer of our skin) has the ability to hold on to moisture if we stay properly hydrated by drinking high-quality water and ingesting the proper nutrients.

If the body is toxic, the liver, the blood’s filtering system, will be toxic. Instead of filtering and neutralizing the poisons and toxins in the blood, the toxins remain, get circulated through the body, and are deposited primarily into the fatty tissue. The toxic load eventually causes the cells to degenerate and begin to die for lack of oxygen, water, and nutrients. The aging process is thus accelerated. The longer this process continues, the more malnourished the cells become. The long-term effects can again be seen in wrinkled, spotted, leathery, gray, lifeless skin.

Eczema is often the result of the organs being so filled with toxic materials that the body is forced to push excess toxins into the bloodstream, making it necessary to eliminate them through the skin.
Men have thicker skin than women due to the influence of the dominant male hormone testosterone. Also, men produce more oil on their skin than women. These factors make women more likely to experience dry and damaged skin.