Kathy Freston - Quantum Wellness Cleanse: The 21-Day Essential Guide to Healing Your Mind, Body and Spirit

Copyright 2009 Kathy Freston

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the Publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-602-86101-5

Weinstein Books

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10017

Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com.

First eBook Edition: May 2009

OTHER BOOKS BY KATHY FRESTON

The One: Discovering the Secrets of Soul Mate Love

Expect a Miracle: 7 Spiritual Steps to Finding the Right Relationship

Quantum Wellness: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Health and Happiness

PRE HENRI, THE PARISH PRIEST IN THE WONDERFUL MOVIE Chocolat, sums up the central message of the movie this way: Listen, heres what I think. I think we cant go around measuring our goodness by what we dont do. By what we deny ourselves. What we resist, and who we exclude. I think weve got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include.

What I like best about the book you have in your hands is that although its program involves making choices about what we consume on a regular basis, the larger framing of this book is an affirmation of pleasure and feeling good.

After more than thirty years of helping people change their lifestyles, Ive learned what is sustainable: pleasure, abundance, and freedomjoy of living, not fear of dying. What you include in your diet is as important as what you exclude. And theres no point in giving up something that you enjoy unless you get something back thats even betterand quickly.

Life is to be fully enjoyed.

You have a spectrum of choices; its not all or nothing. In our studies, we found that the more people changed, the better they felt and the more they improved. To the degree that you follow Kathys recommendations in this book, youre likely to look better, feel better, lose weight, and gain health. Although the conventional wisdom has been that its easier to make small changes in our lives than big ones, sometimes a comprehensive approach like the one outlined by Kathy in this book is more sustainable than an incremental one.

Why? Because big changes often cause considerable benefits, and more quickly than was once thought possible. Youre likely to feel so much better, so quickly, that the reason for making these changes transforms from risk-factor reduction (which is boring), or fear of dying (which is too scary) to joy of living. You may find that what you reduce or give up is less important than what you gain.

The latest studies show how much more dynamic our bodies are than was previously believed. For example, there are minute-to-minute changes in how much blood flow different parts of your body receive. What you eat, and what you do, can increase or decrease this blood flow very quickly, with powerful effectsfor better and for worse.

When you eat a healthier diet, quit smoking, exercise, meditate, and have more love in your life, then your brain receives more blood and oxygen, so you think more clearly, have more energy, need less sleep. Your brain may actually grow so many brain cells (neurons) that it gets measurably bigger in only three months. Your face gets more blood flow, so your skin glows more and wrinkles less. Your heart gets more blood flow, so you have more stamina and can even begin to reverse heart disease. Your sexual organs receive more blood flow, so you may become more potentthe same way that drugs like Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra work. For many people, these are choices worth makingnot just to live longer, but also to live better.

In contrast, meals high in fat, sugar, and calories cause your arteries to constrict, so blood flow is reduced. So does chronic stress. So does nicotine in cigarettes. So do stimulants such as caffeine, cocaine, and amphetamines. So does a lack of exercise. How do you feel after youve just finished a holiday feast? Sleepy, like you want to take a nap.

Why? Because your brain is receiving less blood flow and oxygen. So is your skin, so you look older. So is your heart, so you may have less stamina. So are your sexual organs, and this interferes with your sexual potency.

Having seen what a powerful difference comprehensive lifestyle changes can make, I was happy to write this foreword. The author, Kathy Freston, has years of experience inspiring people to make intensive changes in diet and lifestyle that have helped transform their lives for the better. Her wisdom is distilled into the program outlined in this book.

Kathys approach is multidimensional and multifactorial, a powerful blend of what works and why. Its not just about living longer, but also about living betterto help people find wellness: psychological happiness, physical health and vitality, and good relationships with ourselves and others. She addresses the underlying causes of many chronic illnesses rather than just literally or figuratively bypassing them. If we treat only the symptoms without also addressing their underlying causes, its a little like mopping up the floor around a sink thats overflowing without turning off the faucet. The same problem comes back; or we get a new set of problems; or we have painful choices.

The need has never been more urgent:

• More than 45 million Americans are currently without health insurance. At the time of this writing, President Obama is committed to addressing this important issue. Those of us consulting with his health reform team understand that if we are going to provide health insurance to those who dont have it without also changing the health care system to emphasize prevention and public health to reduce costs, then medical expenditures will increase substantially at a time when we can least afford it. But if we can treat the more fundamental causes of why people get sick, as Kathys book addresses, our studies and those of others are showing that the body has a remarkable capacity to begin healing itself, and much more quickly than we had once realized, if we address the lifestyle factors that often cause these chronic diseases. These approaches are both medically effective and cost effective, thereby improving quality while reducing costs.
• Health care costsreally, disease care costs often exceed net revenues for many corporations. Heart disease, diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and obesity account for 75 percent of health care costs, and yet these are largely preventable and even reversible through changes in diet and lifestyle.
• The limitations of high-tech medicine are becoming more apparent. Recently, for example, more than 1.3 million coronary angioplasty procedures were performed at a cost of more than $60 billion, and more than 450,000 coronary bypass operations were performed at a cost of another $45 billion. Despite these costs, a recent randomized controlled trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that angioplasties and stents do not prolong life or even prevent heart attacks in stable patients (i.e., 95 percent of those who receive them). Coronary bypass surgery prolongs life in less than 3 percent of patients who receive it.
• The power of comprehensive lifestyle changes, such as those described in this book, is now well documented. The Interheart study, published in The Lancet, followed 30,000 men and women in six continents and found that lifestyle changes could prevent over 90 percent of heart disease. Thus, the disease that accounts for more premature deaths and costs more than any other illness is almost completely preventable. And the same lifestyle changes that can prevent or even reverse heart disease also help prevent or even reverse many other chronic diseases as well.