Rob Brown MD - Toxic home/Conscious home: A Mindful Approach to Wellness at Home

Copyright 2018

TOXIC HOME/CONSCIOUS HOME:

A Mindful Approach to Wellness at Home

Copyright 2018 Rob Brown, MD.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

Healthy Berry, LLC

P. O. Box 299

Murrysville, PA 15668

724-552-7258

http://robbrownmd.com

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well- being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

ISBN: 978-0-9997131-1-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-0-9997131-0-5 (e)

Healthy Berry, LLC First Edition: January 31, 2018

Toxic Home/Conscious Home was an encompassing project that took several years to complete and required the participation and encouragement of many players. I am grateful to those who helped to make this book a reality.

I give thanks to my family, in particular my mother, now passed, who inspired me with her unwavering pursuit of good health. My sisters, Marj and Jackie, whose love and trust over the years provided me with the confidence to step out of the confinement of conventional medicine. I thank my children, Arthur and Ursula, for their love and for keeping me in touch with the concerns of the up-and-coming generation.

Thanks to Rita Pollock, James Lyons, and Gracie Lyons for taking their time to read through my rough, rough draft. I am appreciative of their encouragement and guidance toward improvements in style and content.

I am grateful to my editors Anne Dillon, Jason Buccholz, and my life-long friend, David Itkin, whose efforts helped make this material read smoothly and consistently.

Kathy Soroka, I have treasured your continuous support throughout this project and your inspiration for a suitable book title.

Thank you, Rebekkah Narli, for reading the manuscript and for using your creativity and passion to generate a beautiful image for each chapter. Your amazing artistic talent brought this project to a whole new level.

Many thanks are given to Yvonne Kohano whose publishing experience, guidance and attention to detail has helped to transform my manuscript into a book.

Finally, I am obliged to Carol Duffy, Marilyn Masciantonio Morrison, and the staff at Norwin Hills - Excela Square Medical Center for their support and encouragement. You all made this journey so much fun and truly rewarding.

Introduction

D espite living in comfortable residences with climate control, refrigeration, plush beds, various modes of entertainment, and an assortment of personal devices, an increasing number of people in the US are maximally stressed and suffer from chronic illness. The incidence of health conditions such as asthma, heart disease, obesity, and neurodegenerative diseases is increasing at an alarming rate.1,2

Conscious choices are decisions you make based on understanding and knowledge. Creating a conscious home refers to making educated choices that will preserve and increase the well-being of the homes occupants. To optimize your health, its critical to evaluate your personal environment. Aside from cleanliness, the goal in creating a healthy home is to maintain an environment that represents an extension of your natural state of being.

As you work toward this goal, it is necessary to understand your physical and biochemical relationship to your surroundings. The human body is an organism composed of trillions of tiny subunits called cells, each of which work together to make your body function as a whole. Every day, billions of these cells are reproducing, while others are dying. The body is designed to repair itself constantly. At nighttime, in particular, the bodys reparative mechanism goes into full swing, allowing one to wake up refreshed and healed in the morning. It is important to have a calm, relaxing place to rest at the end of each day so the body can heal itself. Without this refuge, your body can become overwhelmed with repair needs. The result of this is distress, and then disease.

From health to medicine

My initial exposure to the health field began as a child. The late sixties and seventies were a time when all kinds of new products and technologies were hitting the market. Processed foods became prevalent and there was an explosion of plastic and synthetic products. Our household didnt partake in many of the new trends. Instead of eating processed, prepackaged snacks at lunch, we were given pieces of fruit and cut-up vegetables. Once our milkman made his final run and stopped delivering milk to our back door, our mother began to buy milk from the market. But instead of drinking processed milk products, we were fed raw milk, purchased at a neighborhood health food store.

My mothers passion for maintaining good health led her to become a silent pioneer in the field of wellness. Her emphasis was on what was then called health food, a label used before the now-ubiquitous term organic. The health world was in its infancy at the time. The biochemical effects of nutrients were incompletely understood. The microbiome had yet to be discovered and the potential dangers of the many industrial chemicals and plastics consumers were bringing into their homes were largely unknown.

Growing up in this health-conscious environment naturally led me to a career in the health care profession. Following college, I spent four years at medical school transforming into an American medical doctor. Our class initially studied the anatomy and physiology of the human body to prepare us to learn the mechanisms of disease, as they were understood at that time. We learned how to recognize and treat disease, but there was little emphasis on preventative health aside from screening exams for various diseases and vaccinations. There was no education on diet, health, or wellness in medical school.