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Staying Healthy Spring News from Dr. Elson Haas
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Hello
Everyone,
Blessed Spring
to you all.
It's been quite
a busy and productive time for me these past six weeks, which is
typical as I begin the season with my Spring Cleansing group. Because
of this and recent travels to Malaysia, Singapore, and then Atlanta, I
have waited on my seasonal message to you all and for you to arrive in
the glory of springtime. I pray you are well and entering smoothly into
our warming and light expanding time of the year.
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Anaheim
Natural Products Show
Pre-spring took me to Anaheim to the yearly gi-normous
Natural Products Expo West show along with the entire natural food
industry of nutritional supplements, beauty products, and of course,
food. Basically, every company that sells in these related industries
is present with their booth, staff, handouts of materials, and a
serious amount of free samples. I personally need to watch my intake
and food combining when I walk around. For me, it might be a few
wheat-free breakfast treats in the morning, lunch around Amy's Foods
with always a wide selection, then a few new chips and salsas in the
mid-afternoon, and finally a few chocolate or other sweet treats before
the end of the day. (Remember, I love to eat, and that's why I need to
detox.) Yet, my focus is walking the show, visiting old and new
friends, whom I find everywhere and anywhere since I have been part of
this growing/exploding industry of natural and organic foods and
continued new products as a writer and educator that supports healthy
nutrition for the past 25 years. I gave several talks and book
signings, especially for Clayton College of Natural Health (www.ccnh.edu) with whom I
have a close alliance. I travel to Atlanta every year to speak at their
national conference at a wonderful resort, this year being at a new
place at Lake Lanier Islands, Georgia. |
Children's
Health Education
For this Anaheim
show, I also met and spoke with interested parties and potential
sponsors and producers in the areas of children's health education, as
this is an essential part of my new career interest-Family and Youth
Health Education with a focus on Healing the Earth and Natural
Medicine. I am doing this with my 30+ year associate Bethany Argisle
and with the support of Ernie Hubbard, our business advisor and man of
many talents. As of now, we have three fully completed prototypes ready
for publication and distribution. We are seeking not only sponsors, but
the right, like-minded companies to license, produce, and distribute
these books, musical CDs, and animation products to the world. Please
let us know when you have any contacts that are appropriate.
Our first three
products include the Anatomix Comix™, Count Broccula, and Blimps and
Whales. Anatomix offers a CD of many songs about the body systems, such
as "Muscleman", "Chew-Chew" for the digestive tract, and "Let's Be
Doctors", the opening song. The Anatomix Comix also features a
Comix/Songbook with many visuals and health tips for young and old.
Count Broccula is a young person's story about how kids dislike of
vegetables, yet the humorous message here is "you'd better eat your
vegetables before they eat you." The beautiful illustrations are by
artist Neil Osborn, who also has illustrated Blimps and Whales, a
touching love story written by Bethany Argisle about a blimp and whale
and about protecting our wonderful whales.
Please review the
visuals and further information of these products in the "Adventures of
Dr. Sun and Princess Argisle" on the following website: http://elsonhaasmd.com/Children/EBNewPortal.html
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 Spring Cleansing
Right
after Anaheim, I did my 34th annual 10-day Spring Cleanse with a
focused group of patients and interested attendees at my office, the
Preventive Medical Center of Marin (www.pmcmarin.com). It was
both a
challenging and powerful cleanse for me (in the Oriental idea that
"Crisis" is "Opportunity"), with new disciplines and insights. The
group did well also with some nice breakthroughs for some of the
people, and everyone dropped some weight and shifted a few habits, like
taking breaks from sugar, caffeine, and alcohol, and if we add wheat
and dairy products to those, we can call that "Taking a break from the
Big Five."
My
next guided group detox program is the Autumn Cleanse, a 3-week detox
program about changing habits, which will be held in September at my
office in San Rafael.
And what about
you? What's your plan for lightening up and clearing for this Spring
and Summer?
During
my cleanse evenings, when I typically crave foods, instead I enjoyed
going through my clothes and wardrobe and buying a couple things for my
trip to Malaysia, then creatively packing for this journey which began
only a few days after my cleanse. Thus, I needed to be a bit cautious
with my diet on my travels and since there was much food everywhere, it
was all about making good choices, as it truly is for all of us, even
in our daily lives. |
 Malaysian Adventure and
Speaking
Tour
I was
invited to speak for a nutritional product company in Malaysia, and
this opportunity turned into an exciting adventure, sponsored by Dr.
Tushar Manek, who lives in the U.S. and has a long-time association
with a Malaysian Company in Kuala Lumpur. Dr. Tushar provides this MLM
company (Elken) with new nutritional products after full testing and
assessment. This particular trip was to introduce a new organic
fruit/vegetable nutritional and phytonutrient powder to support health
by providing cells with the nutrition they need. Let's face it, most
people, and this is true in Malaysia as it is here in the States, do
not consume enough (7-9 servings) fresh fruits and vegetables, and
especially the green veggies. Thus, the new product, called Fitorac
(for Phytorac), was introduced to the people of Malaysia, Singapore,
and other areas (Hong Kong and India). I believe this is an important
breakthrough in these cultures since I basically believe that disease
begins from malfunction of cells, both from nutritional deficiency (not
enough vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, and
phytonutrients) and from toxicity from chemicals and metals that
interfere with enzyme activities and thus, cell function.
We spoke in four
cities to groups of 250-800 people with the message of good nutrition
and detoxification. Basically, if we rebalance the cells and the body,
we can heal, from feeding the body what it needs and avoiding the
toxins as much as possible. Simple, yes? However, in every city, it
appeared that everyone did daily amounts of one or more SNACCs (Sugar,
Nicotine, Alcohol, Caffeine, and Chemicals). I know this because no one
raised their hand when I asked, nor did they when they were asked in
translated Mandarin Chinese in the cities of Panang, Kuala Lumpur (KL),
and Johor Bahru (JB), or in English and Malay in Kota Kinabalu (KK), a
wonderful city on the north coast of Borneo (Malaysia).
I initially flew
from San Francisco (leaving 1am) through Taipei for 14 hours overnight
with a 15 hours time jump ahead, and then another 5 hours to Kuala
Lumpur, the capital and largest city of Malaysia, located in the middle
of the country. So, I left at 1am SF time and landed 1pm the next day
Malaysian time; missed that whole Friday. I then had a couple days to
unwind and adjust to relax, swim and meet the people I would work with.
I stayed at the Sunway Resort and Waterpark with great swimming and a
modified jungle setting. I also had a nice massage at the affiliated
spa. People who know me well know also that I take care of myself (and
others) wherever I go. I exercise and find the good food, and do what
it takes to balance myself.
Then on Tuesday
(4/8), five of us took off for a 4-5 hour journey north by van through
beautiful palm forests and green hills and temple caves in limestone
mountains to the large island of Panang in northern Malaysia peninsula
for our first talk. During our first three talks, Hui Ping, a woman who
worked with Elken, was our Mandarin translator with my slides also
translated; it was great to listen to my words and concepts in
Mandarin, not that I understood too much.
The next day we
drove around Penang, stopped at a beach, and then drove to the great
Quan Yin temple on the hill where I played my flute, walked around the
pagoda temples, and bought some beautiful batik cotton clothes for my
daughter and female friends. Then back to Kuala Lumpur (KL) for our big
talk to the company staff and distributors; the main office is in KL.
Dr. Tushar spoke after me to better describe the product-the
ingredients and the production, etc. The product has more than twenty
organic ingredients with an overall ORAC (anti-oxidant) score of 4000
per scoop, which is quite high. We need about 3000 per day to protect
us from free radical irritating molecules, so you can see this provides
a good start to the day, or support during daily activities.
On Thursday, we
drove, as a group again, south about three hours to JB on the southern
tip of Malaysia for another talk to 200-300 distributors and interested
guests. Then, we were supposed to travel across the border into
Singapore for another talk and to relax to complete my trip, but
Singapore was not ready due to some product details and getting things
finalized with their government regulations. Instead, we were invited
to fly to Kota Kinabalu (KK), which I mentioned above as a special
place about 2-3 hours plane ride north to uppermost Malaysia and the
island of Borneo. More people there speak the native Malay language.
Only problem with this day's journey was that we needed to drive across
the border before 5am to avoid rush hour and the apparently slow
inspection of everyone crossing into Singapore. So, on just a few hours
sleep, we made it easily and flew the coastline all the way north. My
friend Kurt Schnaubelt of the Aromatherapy Institute suggested I sit on
the right side of the plane to view the beautiful coastline (KK is his
favorite place to vacation). That was the one day of my trip that I
took a two-hour nap after a drive up in the KK hills for the view. I
had adjusted my time of 15 hours ahead fairly well with melatonin and
No-Jet Lag. (To be more specific, the melatonin I took 3 days before I
left at the new local bedtime in Malaysia, or about 7-8am west coast
time, and for the No Jet Lag, I used on the airplane as directed on the
package taking a pill every 2-3 hours.) After a rest at our KK
Promenade Hotel, we went out to the beach for the sunset at the
magnificent Shangri La Tanjung Aru Resort where I took a swim and
played my shakuhachi flute at sunset. Very beautiful!
The KK group was
really awesome, meeting us at the airport with a banner and a royal,
enthusiastic welcome. This was our last talk and we gave them what we
had left, with our slides and translator in Malay with Suk Mun, another
Elken employee, doing the translation. The Malay language is closer to
English with lettering, and a bit closer to Hawaiian from my sense,
where the Mandarin is calligraphy letters and more challenging to
understand.
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 Singapore
After 24 hours in
KK, I flew down to Singapore on my own for a visit with several friends
and to meet a new business associate from the Elken's Singapore office.
I enjoyed walking around the city and seeing the Merlion (lion head and
fish body), the symbol of Singapore. Shared dinner of chili crab (the
house specialty) and greens with Mr. KC, their Singapore CEO, by the
spouting Merlion into the bay. I also walked around with my son's
friend, Domenic, on his 22nd birthday, where he was finishing a 4-month
hotel school job working in one of the restaurants of the famed Raffles
House in the middle of the Singapore shopping district. And let me tell
you, there was a lot of folks out shopping; well, it was Saturday
afternoon. I caught a good sale at the local Roots store, a company
owned by friends of mine in Toronto, Canada. Then, after dinner on the
bay, we went up on the hill for a nighttime view of the city and I
found some nice trinkets of the Merlion, a couple that played a smiling
Singapore song.
On my last morning
and travel day, one of my long-time patients who moved recently to
Singapore with his family, met me and we visited the botanical garden
on my way to the airport for a little walk in nature before flying
another 24 hours home, again stopping in Taipei. This time I left at
1pm Sunday and arrive at 3:30pm in SF. I went back in time, which felt
more energizing to me.
Then, I had a day
at home to check emails and make calls and relax, two days seeing
patients at my office, and then I flew to Atlanta for Clayton College
of Natural Health's conference.
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Clayton
Conference
This is my fourth
year presenting at this event and we have a new place, Emerald Pointe
Resort on Lake Lanier Islands, about an hour north of the Atlanta
airport. What a nice spot and a great group! I gave two well-received
presentations. The first was a session with my good friend at Clayton,
Susie Hale, Director of Practitioner Education, on How To Be an
Effective Practitioner. This is about being an inspiration and
supportive guide for clients in helping them become motivated to care
for their own health. It's about talking the talk and walking the walk.
I encouraged the full room to really engage with clients and share
their own experiences. Then we did some practitioner/client
role-playing to talk to people about weight loss, detoxification, and
general lifestyle and health issues, such as breaking the sugar habit.
Susie was a great facilitator and we work wonderfully together. We also
received rave reviews from evaluation forms, such as:
- "Awesome
class; great 'tangible' ideas; examples at end were extremely helpful
to see them in action; good foundation; best class I've had yet."
- "This
presentation was wonderful. Presenters work incredibly well together."
- "Can't wait
for the lunch discussion. Wished we had more time for more demo
session/interactions."
- "Got some
good ideas from the presentation which were important in building
client relationships for me. Concrete concepts!"
- "Great!
Just what I needed for my practice - excellent advice!"
On Saturday at
lunchtime, I presented my new, colorful PowerPoint show about Eating with the Seasons to the
entire several hundred attendees. I began with my basic concepts of
health and they loved when I summarized my 1,000+ page Staying Healthy with Nutrition book
into one line. Most of them use this book, which because of its size is
initially "scary," for their nutrition classes, yet they become excited
when they realize how user-friendly it is (yes, thank you Bethany). Oh,
you want to know what the one-liner is? I thought so.
"Enjoy
wholesome food and avoid junk and chemicals."
After the health
overview, I went into Seasonal Eating,
which is the national nutritional focus now and in some ways is
becoming more crucial than eating organically. The latest message is
"Eat Locally." Have you heard the new term, Localvore? Ideally, eat locally and
what's available at the time, and eat organically grown foods whenever
possible. And better yet, grow your own! Plant your garden! Well, this
message was much appreciated and just perfect during a lunch where the
hotel staff created of couple recipes from my Cookbook for All Seasons,
Watercress Salad and Pollution Solution Dressing, both adapted from the
great naturopathic doctor and educator, Paavo Airola, and his book, The Airola Diet and Cookbook.
I also got to
visit many friends at Clayton, relax and play, swam in both the pool
and the chilly Lake Lanier, a bit low from their dry past year or two.
Yes, I do feel a bit like the Merlion, the swimming lion!
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Special
Tasty Organic Foods - The Wholefood Farmacy
I
want to introduce you all to a new line of natural lyophylized
(dehydrated without heat) food line. Please review it with the Rx link
on the homepage of my website. I met Linda Ann Ventura at a recent
conference and bought the sample box of all of their foods. These are
high-quality and very tasty products that are great for travel,
survival food, and for carrying to work when you need a good nourishing
energy lift. There are several organic items and they happen to be some
of their best products, including the Phi Plus (blend of raw grains,
legumes, fruits, nuts and seeds), Coco-Cherry Phi, and Apple Cinnamon
Phi, and all of these are organic. Everything is GMO-free, and they're
quite delicious. Everyone likes their Veggielicious Spice, a mixture of
dried vegetables and corn (roasted, nor raw), and they have several
really tasty dried and partially popped corn products, some mixed with
naturally dried nuts and seeds. I want you all to taste these items.
Click on the Rx logo on my website or this link http://www.drelson.wholefoodfarmacy.com/2005/ga_home.asp
I will tell you
that this is a person-to-person network marketing company, which I do
not typically do, yet I just must because the products are so unique
and so good. So, try some, share them with your family and friends, and
get them involved. That way we support each other both nutritionally
and financially.
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 What's to Come?
Wow,
I get to relax a bit and be home (and work of course) for a bit. On a
personal note, we had to put down the family dog, Kashi, a sweet yellow
lab almost 15 years old, because she was getting immobile and in pain.
This happened while I was in Malaysia. Kashi was loved by many. So, my
house is a little quieter and lonelier without our friend, yet she had
a good life, and we all have to fly free some time. I prepare every
day, yet I also pray to be here for years to come. We never know, do we?
I plan to have
some time with my kids this summer and do a few talks, yet quite light
travel until autumn when I do my September Detox programs and travel to
Boston for Natural Products Expo on October 15-18, and then return for
a talk on October 19 at NANP symposium (www.nanp.org) in Santa Rosa.
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Finally, I wish you
good health, enough wealth to buy good food and some gasoline, and good
relationships, as we all need love in our lives.
Stay Healthy,
Dr. Elson
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