Christian Healthy Lifestyle 

David Sandstrom 0:00
Welcome to the holistic health matters podcast where it's all about maximizing your health potential in body, mind and spirit, so that you can pursue the abundant life more effectively. I'm your host, David Sandstrom, and this is episode number 12. Today we're going to be talking about what everybody's talking about these days, the covid 19 pandemic, we're going to be discussing the, shall we say, less than ideal government response. And I'm going to suggest a more productive approach for each of us as individuals. Really, the the pandemic is what motivated me to start the podcast. I was looking around and saying, the advice that we're getting is not good. It's not really on target. And really, in a lot of ways, it's just madness. So when I started recording the podcast, I created two episodes talking about COVID-19. And then I decided not to publish those episodes because It was a brand new podcast, nobody really knew me. And I didn't feel like I had earned the right to criticize our government's response to this. And it's such an emotionally charged issue. I didn't want to jump right into the fray with the first two episodes. So I decided to wait. Well, now we've got 11, 12 episodes in the bank. And if you've listened to the podcast, I think you know, my heart by now, and I just can't stay silent any longer. I think it's time to address this topic. Our nation is facing a great challenge. Right now, unemployment is greater than the great recession in 2008. We have bankruptcies skyrocketing. We have anxiety and depression on the rise. Calls to crisis hotlines for spousal abuse are way up. This is a this is a big major health challenge. And I believe history is going to look back at this time and say who was willing to ask the probing questions; who was willing to stand up for the truth; even if the truth was unpopular? And they're also going to ask who shared that truth with others? This topic COVID-19 is really hit home for me last week because my 19 year old daughter who was away at college, was diagnosed with covid. And she wasn't feeling too well. So she went down to the schools clinic. And they gave her one of the rapid tests and they said, yes, you have COVID. And their advice to her was, go home, stay in your room and don't go out. And this is just some, as far as I'm concerned, crazy advice. I mean, talk about diagnose and Adios. I just can't stay silent anymore. I have to talk about this. I don't want to be an armchair quarterback. I don't want to be somebody on Monday morning that's second guessing the plays that the players made on the field, and the coaching and the decisions the coaches made. I don't want to be one of those people. I want Want to be the man in the arena.

David Sandstrom 3:05
There's a famous quote from a speech that Teddy Roosevelt gave at Sorbonne University in Paris, France in April of 1910. It's come to be known as the man in the arena quote, here it is, it's very appropriate here. "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who was actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat, and blood, who strives valiantly, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best, knows in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls, who neither know victory defeat." End quote, I want to be the man in the arena fighting for my family. I want to be the man in the arena fighting for you, the double hm community.

David Sandstrom 4:14
The United States has not fared very well with this, this pandemic. Although our death rate is lower than most industrialized nations, the number of cases is quite high. I think we're among the highest in the world. Now, of course, that's because we've done the most testing by far. Yes, that's true. But I believe there's more to it than that. By and large, Americans embrace a very unhealthy lifestyle. And I believe this is part of the reason because we have such great emergency care here in the US. We expect the doctors and the hospitals to keep us healthy.

David Sandstrom 4:53
That approach is fundamentally flawed. allopathic medicine, Western style medicine is Great with emergencies, but it loses most of its luster when facing long term health challenges. Strengthening people's immune systems to create resilience to this virus is a long term health challenge. Our nation's healthcare system is really not prepared to take on this health challenge effectively. When our political leaders turn to the medical field for advice, they get emergency medicine because that's what they do. Hospital workers do need to protect themselves from germs. But what's good advice in an emergency room can make for some really poor public health policy. In the case of COVID-19, turning to the experts has produced some dreadful and sad to say sometimes deadly consequences.

David Sandstrom 5:51
What have the experts offered us they've offered us an economic lockdown social distancing shelter in place orders Hand washing, mask wearing, and not the least of which is fear mongering. All of this is based all the advice is based on nothing but avoidance. It's based on germ theory. Germ theory basically says this, you are more or less defenseless against these germs. The only way to not get sick is to avoid the germs in the first place. That advice ignores our body's natural immune response. Why aren't we talking about strengthening our immune systems? Well, on this podcast, Holistic Health Matters, we're gonna talk about it. We're going to talk about strengthening our internal terrain. We're going to talk about how to make our bodies a hostile environment for these undesirable microscopic organisms. We're wired for health, you know that our default setting is health. Part of that wiring is a strong, robust immune system.

David Sandstrom 7:03
I want to share a quick story. A number of years ago, when my oldest daughter was young, she was an infant. My wife and I were looking for a pediatrician that was willing to discuss the vaccination schedule. Now at the time, I wasn't completely opposed to vaccinations. I just wanted to talk about perhaps delaying some of them and maybe not doing some of the others. And this particular pediatrician was very opposed to what what I had to say. And she started raising her voice and eventually started shouting at me and she said, "Your daughter has no immune system." And I said, Wait a minute. You're a medical doctor. You know better than that. If she had no immune system, she'd be dead already. They come out of babies come out of the womb with an immune system and immature immune system Yes, but no immune system. That was a bold faced lie and I called her on it. The very premise behind of a vaccine is that we stimulate the immune system to kick into gear. The premise is that you have an immune system to be stimulated. So needless to say, we left that pediatricians office and we found a different doctor. At the time, I was really puzzled as to why this doctor took that position. And I really didn't understand her motivation. But I do now. doctors offices have to work with and through insurance companies, and insurance companies audit those offices. And one of the main things that look at in a pediatricians office is what percentage of your patients have met their full vaccination schedule. And if that percentage has met a certain threshold, the quota if you will, they lower the doctor's score or rating, and they get paid less money from the insurance company. So that's why this doctor was willing to dismiss good science and just insist and be so recalcitrant in her po sition, that mybaby had "no immune system" is kind of ridiculous. But if you follow the money, sometimes that will lead to a lot of insight. My infant daughter had an immune system.

David Sandstrom 9:10
And let's talk about how our immune system works a little bit. We have two divisions to the immune system. One is the innate immune, which is a nonspecific immune response, and the other is the adaptive or specific immune response. With the innate or the general immune response, our bodies will identify and tag antigens that don't belong. An antigen is a protein that exists on the cell wall of an undesirable microscopic organisms such as a virus, bacteria or fungi. Once an antigen is tagged for removal, our bodies will dispatch natural killer cells and phagocytes as well as oxygen in the form of hydrogen peroxide to overwhelm the invader and inactivate it and remove from the body. The adaptive or specific immune responses where the body learns what an invader looks like, and produces antibodies against it. So the next time that we see that antigen, or undesirable microscopic organism, we can mount a quicker, more efficient immune response. This is how we keep from getting sick. The system works very well. Our government's response amounts to nothing more than what that pediatrician told me. You have no immune defense. Therefore, the only feasible course of action is lock yourself in your house and wait for us to develop a vaccine. This advice flies in the face of our understanding of how our bodies work, just like that pediatrician. There is something going on behind the scenes that explains why so many people are willing to ignore good science and embrace a public policy that puts profits before people. Let's face it, someone, some institution is going to make a lot of money from a coronavirus vaccine. And that explains a lot. I want to go over our government's recommendations that are based on advice from the medical field from MDs. As we go over these recommendations, I want you to ask yourself, does any of this address our ability to fight off a viral infection? Or is it based on the faulty assumption that our only defense is to avoid coming in contact with the virus altogether?

David Sandstrom 11:37
Let's look at the first one, the economic lockdown. To the epidemiologists, this makes sense. This is what they studied. This is what they've been trained for. And when something like COVID-19 comes along, they say, Okay, this is the big one. The only feasible thing to do is to shut it all down. We have to prevent the spread of this disease. It makes sense to them, but if you talk to an economist, they're going to talk about the untold financial hardships that come along with an economic shutdown. Right now, we know that bankruptcies are on the rise in 2020 bankruptcies are up personal and corporate bankruptcies are up 20 to 40%, nationwide versus 2019. So somebody's response might be, well, Dave, that sounds like you care more about the economy than you do saving lives. No, that's not the case. If we talk with social workers, they'll talk about the adverse effects of isolating people. We know that anxiety and depression are spiking during the shutdown. spousal abuse is up phone calls to the crisis centers for spousal abuse are up 25% this year, child abuse is up. And don't forget that most of the time. Child abuse is detected by school teachers that notice something, a bruise on the child. And that's when someone starts to look into it. If they're not going to school who's going to tell? Substance abuse is on the rise, drug abuse, alcoholism is on the rise, and even suicide is on the rise. So, yes, I care about lives. Every life is precious, but we have to consider the turmoil created in people's lives and even the loss of life as a result of this economic shutdown.

David Sandstrom 13:32
The government is also offering us social distancing. It's kind of like, if you're looking at it from a kid's perspective, stranger danger. During the shutdown, we had some time off from school, and my 11 year old daughter wanted to build an arcade cabinet. So I thought that would be a really fun project. So we were doing that in the garage, and I needed to cut a groove in the wood that we could put some molding on the edge of the wood, and I didn't have the cutting tool. So I found a woodworking shop in Atlanta. And I went, I called him up said, Do you have this tool? They said, Yes, we sure do. I said, great. I'm going to be right down. He said, Well, we can ship it to you. I said, Well, I really would like to have it today. And they said, Well, if you come down, nobody's allowed in the store, call us from the parking lot, and we'll bring it out to you. Okay, that's fine. It's no problem. So gave my credit card new charge my credit card, so when I got to the parking lot, I called him up and I expected them to bring the box out to the car. But what he said was no pick it up from the table out in front of the store. So I got out of the car, and they had a table set up blocking the entrance to the to the store. And apparently the woman that was bringing my cutting tool out, she thought she was gonna arrive at the table before I did, but I was already standing there and she looked at me with fear in her eyes and she had two masks on and latex gloves. She walked up to about three feet from a table, tossed the box onto the table and jumped back like there was a rattlesnake or something on the table. And my heart really went out to this woman because she's living in fear. We're really losing our humanity with this social distancing and the stranger danger that's been pushed on us.

David Sandstrom 15:19
Another thing the government is offering us is shelter in place orders. We've all heard the phrase, stay home and stay safe. Well, is that good advice? According to CDC data from June 2020 40% of Americans adults have at least one mental health condition and or behavioral disorder as a result of the shelter in place orders. 31% of Americans have experienced anxiety and depression. This is according to the CDC data. 25% of adults have experienced symptoms of PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. 13% have started or increased their substance abuse. And this is this is the real kicker. In the previous 30 days from taking the survey 11% of adult Americans have seriously considered suicide. And it's even worse with young people. People between the ages of 18 and 24, 25% of them have seriously considered suicide in the last 30 days. This is staggering folks. There is a social impact the shelter in place orders, that is not good.

David Sandstrom 16:40
One of the most egregious recommendations the government is giving us is to stay away from doctors offices and hospitals. So that means we don't get any early diagnosis or treatment for serious conditions. How many people have some pain going on that they would like to see the doctor over and it's actually a tumor. It's cancer growing inside their bodies, but they're afraid to go to the doctor, because of our government's recommendation say stay home unless you absolutely have to see the doctor. We everyone knows that when it comes to cancer, early diagnosis and early treatment is critical. If you delay for five, six months a year down the road, you have seriously compromised your ability to recover from that cancer. The idea being is they don't want to infect hospital workers and don't overwhelm the system. Well, many of you know I'm an airline pilot. And I don't complain when I'm asked to take an airliner into a nor'easter storm up in Boston, for instance, with whiteout conditions and zero visibility and an iced-up runway. That's my job. That's what I've been trained to do. And I often do it. The same goes for hospital workers. There is risk associated with working in hospital or a doctor's office. But that's what they do. That's what they've been trained to do, and they can handle it. They know how to take the proper precautions. telling people to stay away from doctors and hospitals is a big mistake.

David Sandstrom 18:11
Much of the advice that we're getting from the government is working against our natural defenses. Many of you know because you listen to this podcast, you're part of the Double HM community that the naturopathic model seeks to come alongside of our body's natural defenses and cooperate with those defenses to build health. Well, one of the recommendations we're getting from many government agencies is they've closed the parks and the beaches. Do I have to tell anybody that walking on the beach is one of the healthiest things you can do? There's a study that came out in June of 2019 that really drives this point home. These researchers found that people that spent 120 minutes per week in nature such as a park walking trail had lower probabilities of cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, they had a lower risk of being hospitalized with their asthma. They had lower levels of mental distress. And they had much lower levels of ultimate mortality. So spending two hours a week or more in nature, dramatically increases the health outcome of the population. And I would have put a link in the show notes. If you want to read this study on your own. It's a very interesting study. So what is our what have our governments done? Our local agencies, they've closed the parks, and they've closed the beaches and they said, stay at home. Is this good advice? I don't think so. Another thing they've done is they've closed the gyms. Okay, so do I really have to make the case that extra size is good for your health? I mean, I think most of you know that. We get our limp fluid moving when we exercise, we have endorphins flowing that make us feel better. And white blood cells that fight disease to fight infection, move through the lymph fluid. So we've got to get moving and closing the gyms is the exact wrong advice. That's not what we need. Another thing we've done is we've prohibited people from gathering in large groups, which means you can't go to church, we've we've closed the door store to our houses of worship. That's a very bad thing too, because social isolation brings on health challenges. Now, the thing they've offered us is hand washing. Hand washing is not a bad idea. But remember, it's based on germ theory.

David Sandstrom 20:46
And germ theory was first developed or purported in the middle 17th century by a guy by the name of Louis Pasteur. You probably recognize his name because he has he's the biologist that came up with past His theory was that it's the germs that infect us. So if we can kill the germs or avoid the germs, we're going to stay healthy. And our medical system today has embraced germ theory, hook, line and sinker. Now, I'm not saying that prudent avoidance isn't wise it is, of course it is. But there was another 17th century biologist, French biologist by the name of Antione Bechamp. You may not recognize his name, but he was a rival of Louis pasture. And he said, you know, yeah, I think the germs are a part of it. But what probably matters most is the host. It's the internal terrain, that person's ability to fight off the infection that has a much greater impact on health than simply avoiding the germs. So here we are, a couple of centuries later, and and Antoine Bechamp's explanation of disease is proving to be far more on target.

David Sandstrom 22:02
Well, this is shaping up to be a rather long episode because I have a lot more I want to share with you. I've heard from some of the double hm community, and they've suggested that I shorten the episodes up a little bit, maybe make them more like 20 to 30 minutes, because bite sized pieces are easier to absorb. And I can get a little bit in depth at times. And I agree, I think that's a good idea. So I think this is a good place to stop, hit the pause button, and we'll pick this up next week. I'm gonna finish in that episode, I will finish explaining the less than ideal government response. And I'm going to give you some of my recommendations that can help everyone with some practical measures that we can do as individuals to help strengthen our internal terrain. I want to give you some practical steps that will help you boost your immune system and enhance your body's ability to fight off any illness. I want to help you transform your body into a hostile environment for any undesired microscopic organism, including the COVID-19 virus. Don't forget, you can always go to my website at DavidSandstrom.com search for episode number 12. And there you can find a full transcript of the audio there. You can download it and take it with you read it later, or you can read it right there on the website. Thank you for giving me some of your valuable time this week. I enjoyed serving you as always, and I'll talk with you next week. Be blessed