Tricks and Tips to stimulate nervous system for better health and sleep.  Please check back from time to time as I will be updating and adding tips to this blog over time.

Just before going to sleep hold an ice cube(must be an ice cube) in each palm(must be palm) for 45 seconds. Beware it is painful. Stimulates diving reflex which stimulates deeper level of sleep.

Fully exhale for an empty lung and hold exhaled breath for 15-20 seconds. It is more difficult than you know. Improves sleep quality as it turns on nervous system to improve oxygen absorption.

To eliminate carb cravings place one grain of quality salt(sea or pink) on your tongue and it will eliminate the craving within 15 seconds. You can also smell your wrist for 20 seconds to reduce cravings.

You can turn off chronic pain for about 30 minutes by causing harmless pain on the opposite side of the body.  Examples would be having a rubber band on the opposite wrist and snapping it, or holding an ice cube in you palm, or running very cold water over your opposite wrist.  This technique is based on the Gate theory of pain which says your brain can only process a limited amount of incoming data to the brain.  So by snapping a rubber band on your wrist it forces the brain to accept the message from the wrist and ignore the message from the chronic pain area for a while.

To remember someone new name, right after they tell you their name imagine wrighting their name on their forehead in your favorite color.  It will increase your recall later.

You can trigger sleep by putting something cold on your forehead.  An ice pack or pack of peas.  Lay it on your forehead until it warms up.

Generic Azelastine HCL, brand name Astepro Allergy is an over the counter nose spray at most pharmacies.  There is well done excellent valid research that clearly shows using it prevents transmission and infection of COVID 19.  I don't think anyone knows how it works but factually it clearly works in research.  Clark and I use it 3 times the day before flying or planned exposure to crowds and the morning of.  To my knowledge there are no side effects and it is harmless so something so simple and safe why not use/do it?

Important Lab Tests to Prevent Future Disease Public Service Annoucement

For disease prevention, here are 6 markers that predict disease 10 to 15 years before standard labs can catch it. Your standard yearly physical checks which are basic metabolic panel a lipid panel, and hemoglobin AIC only monitor current disease and do NOT predict future disease. Those labs only catch disease after it's already developing. We need to look upstream at what's driving disease before it shows up.

Your doctor checks fasting glucose, but not Fasting Insulin, this is backwards. Insulin can rise 10 to 15 years before glucose abnormalities show up by the time your glucose is elevated you've already been insulin resistant for almost a decade. Fasting insulin should be under 5. If it's above 10, you're heading towards metabolic disease, even if your fasting glucose looks good.

Standard Cholesterol panels are outdated. Cholesterol doesn't tell you a particle number which is really important for heart disease. Risk. Apo B (Apolipoprotein B) measures the number of atherogenic particles in your blood and the number of Apo B molecule per particle capable of penetrating the arterial wall causing inflammation of the arterial lining and causing plaque formation. This is the single best predictor in my opinion of cardiovascular risk. I am for a lab result under 80 and ideally, under 60.

The High Sensitivity C Reactive Protein measures systemic inflammation. Chronic inflammation drives nearly every chronic disease, heart disease, diabetes, cancer demand dementia. The standard crp only catches acute inflammation, whereas HSCRP catches low-grade chronic inflammation. Most people want it under 1.0 ideally you want it under 0.5.

Elevated homocysteine increases risk for cardiovascular disease stroke and cognitive decline. It's a marker of methylation issues and often indicates B vitamin deficiency, including B6 B12 and folate. Homocysteine results should be under 10 ideally under 7.

Your doctor checks serum magnesium, which is useless for this reason. Serum magnesiums stay normal even when you're severely deficient, because your body pulls it from cells to maintain blood levels. A Red Blood Cell Magnesium shows you what's inside your cells where it matters. Most people are deficient.

Vitamin D isn't just for bone health. It's a hormone that affects immune function, mood, cardiovascular health and cancer risk. Of interest other than skin cancer as populations go away from the equator the incidence of many cancers actually go down and in my opinion demonstrates how Vitamin D most likely helps prevent many cancers( https://1library.net/article/latitude-and-cancer-incidence-or-mortality.y9ro6jwy#google_vignette). Also recall that significant number of people who died from Covid 19 were found to be Vitamin D deficient. The Optimal range depends on different researchers but I like to aim between 60 and 80 ng per milliliter. It only becomes too high by most accounts over 100. I take 50,000 units weekly and my levels are consistently 60.

Here's one problem with our healthcare system. Insurance often doesn't cover these labs. Unless you have a specific diagnosis, doctors are trained to treat disease, not prevent it. These markers catch dysfunction before it becomes a disease which doesn't fit the current medical level. Be your own advocate. Ask your doctor to add these labs if they won't find a functional medicine, doctor or order them yourself for services like lab or request these labs could give you a 10 to 15 year Head Start when preventing disease prevention is much cheaper than treatment. These 6 labs can uncover problems a decade before they become diagnoses and direct you as to what areas to modify in your life to reduce risk. For many of these increased risk issues the key to prevention is a healthy diet, modest exercise, and judicious use of supplements to correct documented deficiency's.