Archived News of the Week

Via Negativa, The Doctrine of Signatures, Getting Older, Omega 3's, Coffee

Via Negativa: Briefly, the Via Negativa is a Christian theological system that attempts to describe God by focusing on what God is not, rather than on what God is. In the 5th century Dionysius of Areopagite first wrote about the inscrutability of God and how we could never hope to describe what God is, only what God is not, so, in this lexicon, God would be described as uncreated, infinite, indivisible, invisible and ineffable, or, "We do not know what God is. God Himself does not know what He is because He is not anything. Literally, God is not, because He transcends being." Erigena, 9th century.

I have been toying lately with the relation of the Via Negativa to health. We all know what health is, don't we? That arbitrary and sometimes elusive thing called health is when we feel good, our labs are good, we have energy, our relationships are good, we don't have chronic pain and we are happy and optimistic most of the time.

The Via Negativa as related to health, I think, would be the stripping away of not-health in order to expose the beautiful and luminous core of health. And how would we do this? By defining what health is not: Health is not sugar. Health is not addiction. Health is not labored relationships. Health is not gluten or dairy especially if you are intolerant to either. Health is not an ongoing chronic condition like fungus, molds and yeast or parasites or an unhealthy overabundance of heavy metals or chemicals. Health is not enhanced by pharmaceuticals. Health is not city water. Health is not sleeping well at night. I could go on and on. But, in order to expose that radiant core of ours, we could start applying the Via Negativa to our daily habits and one by one, start to eliminate what health is not, thus allowing ourselves to feel healthy and good most of the time.

Doctrine of Signatures: Briefly, this is a naturopathic doctrine popularized in the early 1600's by Jakob Bohme who had a mystical vision in which he saw the relationship between man, his Creator and God's "signature" on various plants. Paracelsus (same century) then adopted these "signatures" for medical application. And now, with sophisticated research techniques, the Doctrine of Signatures has been shown to hold merit. Briefly, certain plants and seeds and whole foods look like the organ and system they are purported to heal.

Carrots: A sliced carrot looks like the human eye. Research has proven that carrots are wonderful for our vision.

Tomato: Has four chambers and is red. Research has proven that the lycopene in the tomato is wonderful food for the heart and blood.

Grapes: Hang in a cluster that has the shape of a heart and each grape looks like a blood cell. Research has shown grapes to be profoundly vitalizing to the heart and blood.

Celery, bok choy, rhubarb and many more vegetables with stalks look just like bones. And these foods specifically target bone strength with their sodium content.

Avocados, eggplant and peppers: Look like the womb and cervix of the female. And get this: It takes an avocado exactly 9 months to grow from blossom to ripened fruit.

Onions: Look like the cells of the body. Onions help to clear waste. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.

Here are few more signatures, and yes, research has shown that they, too, fulfill the promise of their signatures: Kidney Beans: You can guess this one. Looks just like the kidney and these legumes help to heal and maintain kidney function. Figs are full of seeds like the testicle. Sweet potatoes look like the pancreas. Oranges and other citrus fruits look like breasts. Olives look like ovaries. Weird and wonderful, huh?

Getting older: The newest kid on the block regarding a healthy psychological aging process is called the New Science of Outlook. Cardiologist Hilary Tindle's book Up, discusses the importance of a decent mood in order to live a long time. Her research shows that optimists live longer, healthier lives than pessimists. And there is a particularly bad quality within the pessimist category called "cynical hostility." If you are cynically hostile, first of all I don't want to know you because you probably aren't fun to be with, second of all you will die faster than I will: "... she [Dr. Tindle] has found [cynical hostility] to be associated with a 16% elevation in mortality over eight years." (New York Times, Science, June 4, 2013.)

The Omega 3 Brouhaha: Ignore the latest study which says that Omega 3's cause prostate cancer. What a bunch of hooey. Another flawed study and more disparaging remarks for our supplements, the results of which, of course, got front and center on NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams last week. Here are reasons for you to ignore the study: 1) The data was extracted from another, much larger study which was not originally intended to examine the relationship between omega-3's and prostate cancer. 2) These results conflict with the results of other more pointed studies which suggest that omega-3's offer a protective benefit against prostate cancer. 3) The participants dietary intake of fatty fish or omega-3's were not assessed. What?! 4) The levels were taken from plasma rather than red blood cells which is more accurate. 5) There were many confounding factors unaccounted for in the study: a) 53% of the subjects with prostate cancer were smokers, b) 64% regularly consumed alcohol, c) 30% had at least one first degree relative with prostate cancer and d) 80% of the subjects were overweight or obese. All in all, a study not to be paid attention to.

Coffee, the latest health food: The worm has turned yet again and now the much maligned coffee bean is back in our good graces. An article published in the journal Stroke reveals a protective effect for green tea and coffee against stroke in middle-aged men and women. Details: It was a Japanese study with 82,369 participants followed for 13 years during which 3,425 strokes occurred. Results: Green tea becomes very effective at 2 to 3 cups per day and coffee likewise at once a day both for a 20% decrease in the occurrence of stroke. It is thought that both green tea and coffee keep blood clots from forming.

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