December 11, 2001    The Common Cold


GREETINGS AND SALUTATIONS from Arnold's Way!

The engine roars through the stillness of night's air
 A child blinks.  A baby cries.
 A teenager sneezes for the umpteenth time
It was the sounds of a normal day
It was the harmonious clatter of nothing new
 It was a time when everything that we knew, loved, and understood
 Could life be turned upside down?

It's the Monday evening past the last Thursday when we all sat down for Thanksgiving.  It's the time of day when settling down becomes an established routine for the average household that includes the chatter from the T.V., a radio blaring, and tired feet.  It was on such a day that we, or I, meaning Arnold, start this week's topic of such headline fame.  There is not one of us who has not been affected by its spread.  It's the common cold.

I eat my oranges.  I spread out my books, all 30 of them, and reflect on the idea that to create change we have to be of change.  The common cold, amongst those who understand, is not so common.  Its form of last can be labeled as a friendship never to be forgotten or as an enemy of the state that is meant to destroy.  The cold has many shapes, many faces, and many opponents.  Each opponent claims to have THE way for healing.  It is on this note that we begin our quest for facts and for answers about the common cold.

"Not to volunteer aid when unintentional suicide is going on seems nothing less than criminal."  (Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey)

This is a statement that fits today's topic.  It's a statement that is not taken out of context, for the common cold can become the starting point of slow degeneration.  The cold, as defined by Dr. Herbert M. Shelton, is "an inflammation of mucus membranes anywhere in the body."  Sounds simple. Sounds easy to understand until we discover the meaning of inflammation and how it starts.

Does it start by our dietary choices?  Does it start every time we open a menu, every time we sit down for breakfast, every time we reach for a snack? Can there be such a thing as toxic food?  Is the food we eat alive and bursting with raw energy? Or is it cooked, burned, and grilled with all the enzymes, fiber, nutrients, and living cells cooked out of it?  Is it possible that our body is able to tell the difference between cooked and living food?  We close our eyes and place the processed food near our nostrils, rub it in our hand, and listen.  Hear the words it says.  Our bodies listen, our mucus membranes listen, and our truths become our body's truths.

Our innate defense has a predestination to determine what food stands for truth, meaning that it causes no harm, and what food is lie, meaning that by its very existence into our body it is seen as a direct threat to our body's harmony and has to be neutralized.  There is no need to try to understand this difference, for the understanding of what's good for our strength, our vitality, our health, and our life, has already been preprogrammed since the beginning of time.

So we take a pen (not a pencil) and begin to research what exactly the common cold is.  We remember Dr. Herbert Shelton's definition of a cold. This is the same Shelton who single handedly totally revitalized natural hygiene after it almost became an extinct approach to natural health.  This is the same Shelton who wrote more than 50 books.  This is the same Shelton who called for a health revolution and asked the question, "How is a man who is already sick to be made less so by swallowing a substance that would sicken, even kill, him if he were to take it in a state of health?"  So we read Dr. Shelton's words, "The evolution of the most complex and eventually fatal organic maladies, hardening of the arteries, culminating in apoplexy, has its beginning with the first cold of infancy."

What does this mean to the simple layman?  Every time he coughs, every time he sneezes, every time he pukes, it's all the same disease.  It's all the same intelligence that is causing the outpour of mucus overload.  For we sit in silence and admire the toxic waste that is leaving our bodies anywhere, anyway, and anyhow.  We rejoice in the magnificence of rejection, ejection. We give thanks for the fever or the day that generates temperatures so high as to kill those bacterial agents that are not vital for our existence.

We read the words, and we see the medication that people are taking to help them recover.  So I think, who am I?  What am I supposed to be doing?  Am I going to be using the same treatment, which has been proven repeatedly not only NOT to work but has never worked and will never work.  On such a premise the words of Dr. Shelton are forever scribed into the book of the causes and cures of the common cold.  The common cold as of today, as of the past, can be treated quite simply by, "rest, fasting, and warmth."  The cause as always is that the body has reached the point of toxic saturation. The onset of a cold is the gift of the universal forces, which reduces that toxic load within our system.  It's that simple, that easy, that rewarding. We should be rejoicing over every sneeze, for the body is pushing out the toxins.  We should rejoice over every cough, for the body is pushing out toxins.  Even fevers are a joyous event.  The body in its infinite wisdom creates a warming environment, which will burn out the toxins.  I thank my body for giving me these gifts of elimination.

Now let me provide a brief history of my experiences with getting colds.  To say the least, they are very brief, lasting anywhere from 3 hours to 1 day. They happen no more than 3 times a year.  I am 54 years young, eating a mostly fruit, nut, and vegetable diet, and I exercise from 5-7 times a week, a minimum of 10 minutes to 1 hour each time.  But I know, I understand the meaning of sickness for there are no accidents.  The rare times that I get sick I carefully review what I did to create this toxic overload and what I can do to eliminate the toxic overload.  My answer is always rest.  I go to bed early and eat plenty of fruit.  That's it.  Ninety-nine percent of the time I am raring to go the next morning.

As I am writing about the common cold a voice strong, clear, and loud reverberates in my ears.  It's the voice of Rick Cap, age 49, who is an "in your face" kind of guy.  I can hear him saying, "I never get a cold."  Is this a medical phenomenon?  According to Alternative Medicine, nearly half of the population will catch a cold, and 40% develop the flu.  Its cause as believed by most physicians is, "exposure and susceptibility to a variety of common viruses."  The statement is further clarified by saying, "Not everyone who is exposed to viruses catches a cold."  So what does Rick do? He blatantly decries his decree of "never catching a cold?"  How does he do it?  The one true way to find out is to ask.  On Wednesday night at 10pm I called Rick to learn the truth about why he never catches a cold.

His story began not a birth but at age 45 on August 29, 1998.  Rick decided to make a lifestyle change that dictated a total transformation of his dietary habits.  At the time Rick had no choice.  He suffered more than frequent colds.  Rick suffered from bleeding hemorrhoids for 15 years.  He had severe sinus problems, and his circulation in his feet was so bad that they began to look purple.  In addition to these physical ailments, Rick suffered from frequent colds.  Rick was a physical mess.  Becoming a victim of medical treatment was never part of Rick's psyche.  He chose another form of treatment for all his ailments.  He chose vitamins.  They, too, failed to relieve Rick of his physically debilitating and very annoying, constant suffering.  As a result, Rick chose another way to combat his body's deterioration.  He chose a changed in lifestyle.  On August 29, 1998, he decided to go on an 80% raw food diet.  He decided to add barley green to his daily regime or carrot juice.  He decided to add Udo's oil (a combination of flax, which is full of the omega 3, 6, and 9s, which act as a healer of inflammation).  On top of this monumental decision, Rick had to let go of all his toxic food intake, which meant giving up meat, chicken, fish, dairy, processed food, coffee, tea, and anything cooked other than brown rice and steamed potatoes.  Rick had no choice but to change his diet. He was tired of all the suffering.

All this happened over 3 years ago.  Rick's physical ailments disappeared. His bleeding hemorrhoid went away.  This sinus problem went away.  The poor circulation went away.  Last but not least, he never got a cold again.  That was 3 years ago.  Needless to say, Rick became a believer.  As a result he became a strong, vocal supporter for the raw food diet.  He saw the results, felt the difference, and now shares his experiences with anyone willing to listen.

What we at Arnold's Way are trying to show can be summed up precisely by Dr. Hibbs.  "Paying attention to the food a person eats can help him or her avoid creating imbalances and toxicity in the body that leads to illnesses of all sorts including the common cold."

So there it is.  We're done for the day, for the week.  It's Thursday night. In just about 15 minutes I'll be a free man, having finished up common cold. As of right now I will begin research on the flu vaccine for next week. What we learn is what we see.  What we get becomes the freedom of life that begins with I and grows not outward but inward.  To have purity of soul you need to have purity within.  To have that purity within you need to partake of food that meets the biological standards that were established in each and every one of us.  So I stop.  I breathe.  I relax.

I thank you for your time.
  Arnold

References:
Alternative Medicine by Burton Goldberg
Common Cold by Dr. Herbert M. Shelton
Interview with Rick Cap


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Arnold's Way presents: 2nd Tuesday Raw Lecture Series
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It's a Health Day!  Saturday December 15th:

8am -10am Arnold will be talking about raw food and healing

11am -12pm Matt Goodman, physical fitness extraordinaire and former MS sufferer, will share information on how to cultivate limitless energy and body healing mechanisms

12:30pm -1:30pm Marguerita Williams will be demonstrating her chi machine, which equals life force.

Raw food vacation with yoga and body work plus plenty to eat at Ricketts Glen, PA!!  More information coming.  Weekend in April.  Stay tuned!  $20 deposit to hold your spot!

Holiday Dinner at Arnold's Way Cafe!  Guest chef Georgia!  Featuring a raw nourishing dinner including salad, stuffed red peppers, pies, cookies.  $25. You must register by December 18th.  Saturday December 22nd at 6pm.  Call Arnold at 215-483-2266.

Arnold gives a breakfast lecture on raw food and healing every Saturday morning at the store from 8: 15 to 9:45.  It's free and there's free breakfast.  Please pre-register.

On the last Saturday of every month, Arnold gives a free raw food preparation course from 8:15 to 9:45 at the store.  Learn how to make pizza, chili, pies, soups, cookies and more in 7 minutes or less.  Please call Arnold to register at 215-483-2266.

There's a raw food Pot Luck dinner on the last Wednesday of the month at the store beginning at 6pm.  Bring a raw food dish or pay $7. Pre-registration required or it will be cancelled.

Greenwood has 2 pot luck dinners each month, on the second and fourth Saturdays, from 2-5 p.m.  Call Tom for more info at (610) 623-5656.

Loreta Vainius is sponsoring a Living Food support group.  (610) 648-0241