09.07.08
Posted in Healthy Living at 10:18 am by Dr. Runels
Two weeks ago, I parked my car in the garage and our dog, Angel, started licking the car. She spent about a full minute grooming my car. The dog was pregnant (she delivered 6 healthy puppies during hurricane Gustav), and so now she pays no attention to the car but spends her time feeding and cleaning her puppies.I snapped this photo because I did not think anyone would believe that my dog helped me wash the car. But seeing this reminded me of something about love. In today’s scripture passage, Jesus takes off his clothes, wraps a towel around himself, and then washes his disciples feet. He asked them to do many things for Him. They later died for speaking about Him. But, on this particular day, his last day before the grave, He didn’t ask them to serve a big dinner and shower him with gifts, he took off his clothes and washed the dirtiest part of their body. Bear with me a minute. Allow me to go to the edge for a second–to stress a point. How often have you taken off your clothes and then become a servant to do a physically dirty job for someone you love–not much more glamorous than washing the car with your tongue.After Christ finished, he put his clothes back on and said, “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”Then He served them dinner and went to the grave by way of a painful death.As a man who lost his wife to divorce, as a man who has probably offended every one of his friends, relatives, and patients at one time or another, I do not feel qualified to say much else about love except for these things (but these things may help you to better health:1. Without love you go without the primary force. GOD is love.2. Love is movement. Washing a car. Washing feet. Serving dinner. Emotion is etheral and fleeting. Love is physical movement–doing, giving, speaking.3. Keeping your body healthy with walking or throwing away the junk in your house that you know keeps you unhealthy is a movement that gives love to you and to the people who depend on you. It will do no good to throw out the junk after you have the heart attack. The walk may be impossible.4. Love may not be glamorous to look at but is the most glamorous thing there is.I don’t look very glamorous covered in sweat, red-faced, and out of breath while I’m exercising. But, to keep myself healthy so that I might care for my sons and set an example for my patients, I still exercise. I do not look glamorous at the party drinking diet coke while the other guests have a fancy martini.5. Love often hurts the person who does the loving. The person in movement will often hurt during the loving. If you learn to not fear discomfort and pain, if you learn courage, you will learn more about love. It takes courage sometimes to throw away the junk. This past weekend, I helped a patient of mine detox off of alcohol (I worked for a short time at a rehab hospital). A long time, daily, heavy drinker, his health and job were on the line. He went to stay with his brother, who does not keep alcohol in the house. We only started this after I put my patient through several months of preparation, putting many healthy things in his life to help fill the void when the alcohol left (I combine what I learned from the reahab hospital and the ER with what I know about endcrinology and diet and nutrition). While there, he had less pain because of the preperation–but not all was fun. He was confined to the house with his brother on a holiday weekend (labor day). I was making house calls several times a day when my friends were at the beach. He loved my sons by paying my fee. A big circle of doing, none of it really comfortable, but all with a wonderful much more comfortable place when finished.Now, he’s a week out and no alcohol But to go there with his brother took courage. He did it because he wants to take better care of his wife. He was successful because of love and courage. I teach people how to make pain minimal but to be healthy you must know some pain. That pain only has meaning when there is love.Finally, in the passage from today, Christ says, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.”This one was the hardest for me to learn. I spent most of my life thinking that if you love people as hard as you can, then most everyone will love you back and treat you kindly. I thought if you are trying to do healthy things and take care of yourself and your family that people will be kind to you. I was wrong.What I finally realized: the harder you love the people around you the more likely you are to make enemies. Hard and pure love will make some angry and make others enemies. For example: I worked very hard and spend 30 thousand or so per year going to seminars around the country for the past 12 years to learn the latest and best ways to treat type 2 diabetics. Two weeks ago, a new patient came to me on three different diabetes medications (Actose, glucophage, and glipizide). After two weeks, using a combination of hormone replacement, exercise, and phasing him through two different diet plans, he has already stopped the glipizide and the actose and has lower blood sugars than when he started (and lost 6 pounds and feels much better). I have repeatedly done this with my patients. Guess what the reaction is of the physician who was taking care of them before me? You probably guessed, usually anger. I have yet to have one of those physicians call me up and say, “Hey, Charles. this is really great. Tell me how you did this.” I presently have patients who are professors at 7 or 8 universities, and from two different medical schools. I have patients who are physicians and physicians families. I also have physicians who hate me and speak very poorly and unprofessionally. I have come to consider this a necessary part of hard work and deep love.I’m not sure where your battle will be. But if you love deeply, you will make enemies. Here’s the health application: to be consistent with my exercise and diet and health routines, I have offended many people and occasion offended my own family and friends. The degree of resistance varies but you will meet resistance if you try to be healthy.I have one patient who is 70 pounds over weight and his wife makes extra money making cakes for parties (she is also over wieght). She continues to make the cakes and he continues to eat in unhealthy ways. There must be conflict in the house before he will see better health. So far, he has avoided that conflict.In summary:Love is doing.One way to love is to do the things that make you healthy.3 miles___________5 fruits and vegetables_____________Scripture: John Chapters 13, 14, 15Virtue: Cleanliness–Tolerate no uncleanliness on body, clothes, or habitation.The purpose of these 365 health strategiesThe 1,3,5 plan Peace & health,
Charles Runels, MD Still the best selling sex manual on Amazon.com (because it’s more about spiritual and physical health and how that improves sex): Anytime…for as Long as You Want: Strength, Genius, Libido, & Erection by Integrative Sex Transmutation
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08.03.08
Posted in Healthy Living at 10:40 am by Dr. Runels
We flew home from Orlando on Saturday.
- If’ you’ve been following this blog, then you know the goal for me was to enjoy my sons, have a wonderful trip, and lean out some all at the same time.Breakfast was water and a cup of coffee. I ran out of Xentropin on the trip and was aggravated at that because fasting, and low car diets both can increase growth hormone levels. Using the xentropin along with arginine or glutamine will have a synergistic effect.
- I think Xentropin combined with fasting would also have some synergy and suspect that it did during the early days of the trip.
- Lunch was a the Outback Steak house. I had part of a ribeye and a salad. Supper was a greek salad with plenty of olives and feta cheese. Nothing but mineral water and distilled water to drink with each meal.
- On arrival home, I jogged a fast (for me) 3 miles and did some push ups and chins along the way. This morning, got on the scales and weighed in a 165 pounds (down from 176 on departure). Thats 11 pounds in about a week. I’ve probably lost some water weight as well since if you do the calculations.Some would say that I’m too lean now.
- Actually, I feel my best at around 150 pounds. The ideal body weight for a long distance runner is twice your hight in inches in pounds. At 6′2″ that’s 74 inches x 2 = 148 pounds. The only diet shown to prolong life is a very low calorie diet. That has been studied in spiders, people, monkeys, and rats–in every case a very low calorie diet leads to a longer life span. There is a trade off though and it’s not ALL about living a long time.
- I enjoy having strength, and I think I probably look better at 185. But, I need less sleep and think much better at 150. I sort of go for a trade off and keep my weight around 165 to 175 most of the time. Occasionally, i’ll let vanity get the best of me and put on some muscle and bring it up to 185 to 195. But at this weight I feel more sluggish and need more sleep and my blood pressure starts to rise when i pass 185.All that to say that I think most people have a healthiest weight. Where you put your weight and how you do your diet can me varied so many ways and I think should be varied according to what you’re doing (your activity) what you’re trying to accomplish at work (how much sleep do you need) and how vital markers like blood pressure and cholesterol go at the various weights (my total cholesterol stays less than 160 when my weight is around 175 or less).
- I like to teach my patients how to take control of their weight and put their weight wherever they want it to be. The first time I thought about developing this skill was as a young man. I read an interview with Arnold Swartzenneger. He had just landed the roll for Conan. I had been following him in the muscle magazines but at that time many people had never heard of him. He told how the director of the movie told him that Arnold was so big with muscles that he would look fat on film. So, Arnold told him that he could weigh whatever the director wanted him to weigh. And he did. He lost weight down to exactly where he wanted to be.
- So, I thought, why not? Why not develop the skill to take fat or muscle on or off (within the range of my genetics) and weigh whatever serves me best. I’ve been 30 years now in experimenting with such things.
- I hope you’ve learned something from the blog. This will be the last on this subject (my trip to Disney).
- My sons are back in their summer routines. They are also excited about school starting and have started buying books and getting their study areas ready.Thank you very much for honoring me with your attention to my writing. If you have spent your money with me, thank you for trusting me with that as well and so affording me the chance to travel with my family. Hopefully, I will bring new energy to the process of learning as much as I can about health and then finding better ways to make what I learn easy to apply in your life.I know,
- I did some crazy days while on this trip. I’m plan to continue low carb for a while then swap to shakes a fruit for a time. Today will be mostly raw eggs since i’m home now (I do not trust raw eggs if i did not buy them, keep them cold and bring them home to my own refrigerator. Most of the salmonella is on the shell unless the egg gets hot. still I’m not recommending this, i’ve just found it’s a good way for me to go low carb).
- Here’s a few photos of the trip home and one of me after going for a run after arriving home. I’m not into showing my body on line but I know some might wonder what’s the results–exactly what does this 48 year old doctor look like after a vacation like that. If you don’t want to look then just don’t click., I’m just a doctor and father—not a professional body builder or athlete. I’m not trying to impress upon anyone anything except that you can have good health and you can get healthier while traveling and having a good time.
- Peace & Health,
- Charles Runels, MD
- Anytime…for as Long as You Want: Strength, Genius, Libido, & Erection by Integrative Sex Transmutation (still the best selling sex manual on Amazon.com)
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07.30.08
Posted in Healthy Living at 7:41 am by Dr. Runels
- Yesterday, while lifting weights here at The Animal Kingdom Lodge in Disney World, I felt something that told me it was time to change strategies with my diet.
- If you’ve been following this series, you know that I’m documenting a way (there are others) of traveling and losing weight at the same time.I started the day before leaving and went from a 16 hour water fast to a very low carb and low calorie diet (see previous episodes for details).
- Then the day of leaving, i continued with low carb but added more calories. I’ve felt wonderful until last night. Then right on cue (as predicted by Vince Gironda years ago in his book the Wild Physique) I felt some increased fatigue and some very mild beginnings of muscle cramping while lifting weights.
- We had spent the day yesterday at the Animal Kingdom. Breakfast was a cup of black coffee.Lunch was a turkey sandwich with only one piece of bread and more water during the day.
- What happens with a low carb diet is the depletion of glycogen and the conversion of fat to glucose with ketosis. If you have one meal with carbohydrates every 3rd day (I use a full 3 days) then the muscles fill back up with glycogen and energy comes back up. I did this last night with a small pork tenderloin on a bed of mashed potatoes followed by ice cream at Gheradelli’s (that’s right…ice cream). Energy came up. Weight still down.
- I went to bed at a reasonable time: 11:30 and was up at 4:30 writing for my next course/book (more on that later). Today, i’ll go back on low carb but there are a couple of other options that would work well at this point if i were home that would allow weight loss and continued good energy.
- The general strategy (as i’m doing now and as how recommended by Vince–way before Atkins preached low-carb), is very low carb for 3 days with one high carb meal (just one reasonable meal…not the whole day) every 3 days then back on low carb.
- I change diet routines depending upon physical activity and what i need to accomplish with my brain as well as cues from my body.
- I’ll explain more about how to do this later but the kids are waking up now and so we’re off to Epcot.
- Hope this is helpful.
- Here’s a few photos from yesterday at the Animal Kingdom.
- Peace & Health, Charles Runels, MD
- Anytime…for as Long as You Want. Still the best selling sex manual on Amazon.com
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07.29.08
Posted in Healthy Living at 1:57 am by Dr. Runels
Got up at 4:30 and had xentropin, armour thyroid, and SAMe. Drank about 8 ounces of distilled water.
Drove with sons to airport.
Drank large water before getting on the plane (the humidity on a plane is literally like that of the desert).
Nothing else to eat. Not really hungry and feeling calm but feeling the effects of ketosis. By lunch, i’m a little weak and hungry. By now, we’re at The Magic Kingdom.
Here I buy a roasted turkey leg and a diet Coke. We spend time in the park. I’m getting lots of energy now and no hunger.
Two hours later, a little hunger, so I buy a large dill pickle and and water.
Eating the pickle, I remember how my mother would make dill pickles with the large cucumbers that we grew fresh in our garden. As I walk through the park with my sons, I think of my parents and how they brought me to Disney World as a child the year the park opened. I’m not sure the year but for some reason i think it was around 1972 (when i was 12). Maybe I want that to be the year because i’m walking with my 12 year old, Luke.
He seems excited and grateful for being in the park and takes me from ride to ride. His older brothers seem to have fun as well but I have to remind them to not spoil Luke’s fun by belittling what’s going on in the park.
I answer a few urgent calls and one urgent email with my iPhone. The children seem to know that this might be one of the last times (if not the last) that the four of us go alone to Disney and Luke tells me to put the phone away, so I do. They seem to know that their time with me is coming to an end. Soon I must launch them and so as we go about the park I think most about how to keep reminding them (without preaching) that they should take care of each other. I stop them when they criticize. I brag when they encourage. Word seem so important to me. The women i have loved have loved words. I fell in love with every English teacher I ever had. Words are so powerful. I want them to know how to use words to keep each other strong.
I drink several bottles of water and have a cappacino while at the park. I do lots of walking but it’s stop and go–exhausting but not what I usually consider aerobic exercise. I frequently will schedule a fast or a very low carb day (as today) when I plan to not be able to really do exercise. The fast lifts me up emotionally, prevents that sluggish feeling, and prevents weight loss.
We leave the park and make it back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge in time for a late (9 PM) supper. I have a piece of prime rib and a piece of salmon and some bell peppers and onions that have cooked in oil.
Afterwards, I sit in the hot tub with my sons until I must go inside for a radio interview with Veronica Monet. She lectures around the country about sex and wants to talk with me about sexual transmutation for the benefit of her listeners. We talk for an hour. My sons are outside on the porch that over looks the pool.
They come inside after the interview and we talk about our day and what we will do tomorrow, They seem hopeful, wide-eyed, and exhausted all at the same time.
They fall asleep. I spend time reading a book and answering e-mail (never seem to catch this up).
I practice what I preach (and practice sex transmutation as taught in my course). I feel fatigue but too much energy for sleep so I wrote this note.
Now it’s 3:38 am and i’d better go to sleep. We plan on catching the Animal Kingdom by 9 am so that we can see the animals in the morning when they are more active.
During the day, I used several strips of xentropin, and chewed several tablets of Rejuvamin (call my office to try for free…251-342-6466).
The children are breathing heavy in their deep sleep and i wonder what dreams they have after a day at Disney. I wonder about my patients at home–especially about those who have recently seen me, those who have not seen me that need to, and those recently called to arrange to see me. I think frequently of my patients and will every day call my nurse and say, ” What about Mrs. ____, I haven’t heard from her in a while. Would you call and arrange for us to talk or visit?”
I wonder what it will be like when all three sons have moved away and I have become too old to care for my patients.
It’s getting way too late now. I hope this give you an idea about how i do a day on vacation. It’s not really about the food. It’s about the people i’m with and where we are. Eating less gives me more time to do. By avoiding over eating and actually UNDER eating while on vacation, i don’t feel sluggish and have more energy to do.
it’s not for everyone, and it’s not for me everytime. But, i’m just showing you one way to occasionally travel.
Charles Runels, MD
Anytime…for as Long as You Want: Strength, Genius, Libido, & Erection by Integrative Sex Transmutation. A 15-Day Course for Men to Improve Sex and Life
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07.27.08
Posted in Healthy Living at 10:49 pm by Dr. Runels
7/27/08 11:23 PM
After church today, my sons and I met friends at the Waffle House. I put a dollar in the juke box and played Patsy Cline, Bob Seger (Turn the Page), Otis Redding, and Kryptonite (by Three Doors Down).
I ordered a 4-egg cheese omelet with onions and a cup of black coffee and a glass of water.
I drank all of the water and about ¼ cup of the coffee.
I hardly every go to the Waffle House that I don’t think of something that Fob James said while governor of Alabama (that didn’t go over well with the state employees); he said, “I think if I could ever get this state to run as smoothly as a Waffle House, we will be in good shape.”
It is amazing how many people they can feed out of such a small space.
The waffle and water took my hunger away. I drank more distilled water later in the day.
This evening, I went for a walk (3 miles) at a leisurely pace.
My youngest son is the reason for our destination (Disney World). He’s 12. That means, I have this last summer before I will no longer have a child in my house. Oh, he’s 75% teenager already, but there’s still enough little boy in him that I wanted to get him to the magic kingdom while it’s still magical.
After the walk, I had one piece of hamburger, a slice of tomatoe.
For bed-time, I ate one spoon of peanut butter and two glasses of distilled water.
The interesting thing about going into ketosis is how it makes you more comfortable to sit still. There also comes with ketosis a burst of energy—when you’re all the way into ketosis. During the transition there can be almost a panicky feeling. You know that you’re not going to starve to death but somehow your emotions don’t know.
Best, I have found is to go for a walk and drink water.
I’ll sometimes (when in ketosis) feel tired, or irritable, or hungry. But, usually after swapping over I feel energized and calm and focused.
Tomorrow, we will awaken at 4:30 a.m. and head to the airport. My youngest was so excited that he had trouble going to sleep but wanted everyone in the bed by 9pm because he said, “we will need all of our energy for the Animal Kingdom tomorrow.”
I feel sad sometimes that it’s just the four of us (no mother to take along). But, with every pain there is usually a gift. Our gift is that we feel very close and love is thick at our house.
I’m going to sleep now, grateful for my three sons, for health, and for the people who trust me with their health.
I’ll be checking into the office during the week and will still have my cell phone with me but I feel responsible for my patients and the trust they give me helps me afford the trip and ironically makes me feel somewhat guilty for leaving. I manage to leave by reminding myself that even Christ found it necessary to leave the crowds and go to the mountains, or desert, or to a boat to rest and would sometimes leave others who needed him so that he could renew his strength.
Today, I did not eat anything not mentioned or take any other medicines. I did not take any other vitamins. I give myself a rest even from the vitamins when I fast or do the first day of a low carb diet.
Anytime…for as Long as You Want: Strength, Genius, Libido, & Erection by Integrative Sex Transmutation—Still the Best Selling Sex Manual on Amazon.com
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Posted in Healthy Living at 4:15 pm by Dr. Runels
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7/27/08 10:27 AM
I woke this morning, walked into the kitchen, and decided to not eat breakfast. I’m leaving tomorrow on a plane for Disney in Orlando and taking my sons. To make the trip in a healthy way, I’ve started today doing what I do.
Sometimes, I don’t even think about the things that I do but will occasionally catch my self while traveling and thing, “I should tell my patients this trick.”
For this photo, I told my sons, “Line up, we’re going to share this trip with my patients and readers.”
They were working in the South Alabama sun, near 100 degree F heat, to get our lawn in shape. Part of the beauty of travel is that it gives a reason to work with more focus. You don’t mind working hard when you know an exact time you will leave to go to a definite place for re-creation.
Leisure is a verb to me that means doing something the renews the spirit and makes the mind happy or the body stronger. Sometimes that means sitting. Sometimes it means catching a plane to a place to go crazy.
I try to stay overnight with my sons once a month and more than one night every other month (can be with a relative or some simple place–sometimes even sleeping on the ground). There’s something beautiful about traveling together even with the uncomfortable trials will happen. There’s also something powerful in the way travel brings people closer.
Thought it might be helpful to keep a log of what happens during a week’s holiday with my sons, so that you might see the many crazy things that I do to stay healthy during my travels.
One of the problems that I see with people working to keep or regain their health is the obstacles that they face while on the road.
I do not claim to have all the answers. But, I do usually come home feeling healthier and usually have a wonderful time when I travel. I’ve also coached many people who travel for a living and helped them find a way to travel and still find excellent health. I thought you may find it useful to actually listen and watch a few of the things that go on with a trip with me that result in better health.
I’m very grateful to the people who trust me with their health (readers and patients). I could not afford a holiday or even the camera that took this photo or the computer that I’m using now without their trust and willingness to compensate me for my expertise.
I usually combine travel with seminars (about one every other month) so that I stay on top of my field and offer my patients the best of care. But this time, the trip is simply to spend time with my sons.
In trying to think how I might still give back to the people who trust me, I decided to log the trip with a daily (and perhaps even more than once a day) blog about our activities and how those activities relate to my attempts to stay healthy even when having fun, even when relaxing, even when travelling.
Since this will be a frequent blog, I’ll only send this to you once. If you want to stay up to date with this blog, then you’ll need to click here and subscribe to the blog. Or, you can just check back into the blog later and see the weird things that I do to stay healthy on the road.
I will never abuse your permission to send mail to you. I’m sending you this one notice that I’ll offer daily personal details of my travels so that you might learn (but only if you go to my blog and subscribe). I will not bother you again with this topic.
I do not expect you to adopt everything that I do on this trip.
I frequently hold back some of my opinions and practices because those just starting on the road back to health might consider them just too crazy. But, I decided to not hold back and just tell everything. You can have more healthy travels without doing everything that I do. Almost every time I travel, I’m looking for a way to have more fun, be more productive, and have better health on my return (as I do with the journey through a normal day).
So, for a start, one of the things I do is have a very low calorie (or zero calorie day) the day before leaving. This clears my head and makes me light for the road so that I’m less groggy and sleepy from the confinement of a car or plane or boat.
“How to have fun with your sons and still come home healthy and lean”-that’s pretty much what we’ll be covering.
So, I’ve lined up someone to be here at the house to take care of the dog a the dog and the cats and to make sure that any potential thieves will find someone at home.
Now, I’m off to church with an empty stomach except for these things so far:
1. Two glasses of distilled water (I just buy the kind in the jug at my local grocery store)
2. Three scoops of Rejuvamin (more on this later)
3. Two strips of xentropin to raise growth hormone levels.
4. 400 mg of SAMe to keep attitude and joints healthy.
5. 135mg of Armour Thyroid to keep thyroid in upper 10% of normal and to keep risk of thyroid cancer down (I had radiation as a teenager as old-fashioned treatment of acne).
6. One cup of black coffee. Lived most of my life without this one but started drinking it for a particular reason about 7 years ago (will explain another day).
7. One baby aspirin
My sons will bring the scriptures and journals. We’re off to church. Then home again to prepare for the trip.
Ode to a Grecian Urn. One of my favorites. It’s always best right before you get it. Christmas eve, better than Christmas morning. Seduction better than consumation. Getting ready for the trip better than the journey. The journey better than the destination. Usually.
We’ll talk again later if you subscribe to this blog; otherwise, I’ll only bother you again the next time something important and practical appears in the medical literature.
Peace & Health,
Charles Runels, MD
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07.23.08
Posted in Healthy Living at 9:38 pm by Dr. Runels
People sometimes ask what I use to keep my GH levels up. It’s a combination of things that I do. For now, my pituitary gland works well enough that I can achieve adequate GH levels with IGF-1 around 300 by using a glutamine product that I describe in the CD that comes with my book (Anytime) combined with a new product that uses GHRP-2 (which acts like growth hormone releasing factor) to stimulate the pituitary to release GH.
Go to this link to learn more about Xentropin and GHRP-2.
You can read the research about xentropin and GHRP-2.
The problem with the secretagogues (the proteins and amino acids that cause GH release) is that they work least in those who need them most.
If you’re interested in ordering the Xentropin (it’s a little hard to come by), send me an email with xentropin in the subject line and I’ll send you more information: DrRunels@Runels.com
Peace & Health,
Charles Runels, MD
P.S. If you wish to learn more about how growth hormone relates to erectile function and can help cure weak erections, be sure and read the chapter on hormones in my book (still the best selling sex manual on amazon.com): Anytime…for as Long as You Want: Strength, Genius, Libido, & Erection by Integrative Sex Transmutation
You can also, now download my CD on premature ejaculation.
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07.19.08
Posted in Healthy Living at 9:12 pm by Dr. Runels
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 With the release of the new Batman movie tomorrow, I thought I just must tell about what happened two weeks ago when my son, Luke, visited my Mother with an odd request– and how that trip can teach you one of the most valuable lessons I know about health. He had bought material (you can buy anything at Walmart) that he thought would make a nice cape. He then asked my Mother to help him design the cape. When I took this photograph of the two of them after they completed the project, I did not consider what he could teach me about health.We drove home with him wearing the cape. For the next few days, he wore that cape to bed, while reading, and pretty much around the clock. He even gave me a very detailed lecture about the versatility of the cape and how he intended to bring it back as a modern-day fashion article of clothing. I still missed the lesson he was teaching me about health.A few days later, while leaving my office, I called home to ask my oldest son, Trey, to load up all three brothers and any friends around the house into his car and meet me at IHOP for supper.I arrived before my sons. I took a booth and said hello to the waiter. Thinking about my day with a glass of water for company, I looked up to see the brothers and two friends walk into IHOP wearing capes. All of them (except the oldest who could not find a cape to fit). I didn’t know we had that many capes at my house. It seems my youngest son had at least convinced his immediate circle that the cape needed to be reintroduced into the main stream.
Luke told me that as he walked into the restaurant he heard a child mention something about Batman, but that he thought batman was “lame.” I asked why he was so inspired to wear a cape (with enough enthusiasm to infect brothers and friends) and he said that he got the idea while watching Beowulf and the recent movie about the Spartans holding off the Persians (click here to see a cape scene only if you are not disturbed by violence and if you want to see a cool cape).
Children know there is evil in the world. Children know there are battles to be fought and won. When I would read to my children when they were younger, I would read the original Grimm’s Fairy Tales. In the original version, the evil is more evil (for example one of Cinderella’s sisters cuts off her toes to make her food fit into the smaller shoe and the prince discovers he’s been fooled when he see’s the blood soak through the shoe). I think children want adults to acknowledge evil in the world. The scriptures are full of violence with heads being chopped off and people killed and tortured in most of it’s books. What children and adults need is acknowledgement of evil (physical, disease, and emotional) and pain but to know that good can prevail and to be inspired to put on a cape, become a hero, and fight for a worthy cause–even when the battle is sure to be lost–because there is a larger plan that will make it right in the end.
While in my early teens, I watched the movie Spartacus (with Kirk Douglas) and then after reading about the Spartans and how they slept on the ground, I took a sleeping bag down stairs. I slept every night for the next year on a sleeping bag on the concrete basement floor with no mat beneath it.
So what can all of this teach us about health?
I’ve found that most of my really healthy patients wake up in the morning and put on a cape. It’s usually not a physical cape, but still they put on a cape. Just like Sir Lancelot was a knight looking for a king worthy of his sword. All of us are looking for a cause worthy of our attention. When we find it, we then put on our cape, become heroic, and set out to do something.
I met with a patient recently from another town who is worth 9 figures (as in a billion). He has the trophy wife, the beautiful house, but he still works to do his chosen profession because he has a vision of how the world will be better because of what he is doing both in his profession and with the money he makes.
In short, he puts on his cape every morning. He also, NOT coincidentally, is one of the hardest training people I know when he goes to the gym. Why? Because he really is a super hero to many people and he knows that the longer he stays alive and the healthier he is, the more people will benefit.
He is very busy, works long hours, with many responsibilities and frequently makes the national news with what he accomplishes–but he is one of the most consistent people I know with his health practices (exercise and diet and supplements) because he realizes that he cannot do his job as well (when he puts on his cape) if he is not healthy and alive (as in not in the grave).
He has connected health with doing his work while wearing his cape.
Contrast this with most of the people who come to me for the first time having lost their health. If they are busy and accomplished and are trying to wear their cape but are telling themselves that time spent improving health takes away time from their work in the cape, then they will ignore their exercise, eat in unhealthy ways, and maybe even succumb to substance abuse. In this case, one of the first things I must do as a physician, is to help them see that they will be less effective in the cape if they do not take time to exercise and eat properly.
If they are trying to become healthy but are not putting on a cape every morning, then it’s like they are like Sir Lancelot. They are trying to become fit and energized, but lacking a King (or cause) worthy of their sword, they just hang out by the bridge and sort of waste energy, wallow in melancholy, and challenge people to an occasional fight, and lose their motivation for health. They are lacking a cape.
When I worked in the emergency room, I made time to exercise because I thought the extra stamina helped me keep a clear and calm head when it was 2 a.m. and someone was bleeding and gasping to hold onto life in the bed before me. In the same way that Bobby Fisher would lift weights to give himself a mental edge in Chess, somehow, staying very fit seemed to give me a calming mental edge when in the heat of the emotional and intellectual battle of quickly diagnosing and treating someone during long days on my feet.
I do not, however, think that you must be in the national news or saving lives to put on the cape. To know more about how to find your cape in the morning, read the following book review that I wrote for Amazon:
About 29 years ago, as a teenager, while roaming the Birmingham Public Library, I picked up a worn copy of Victor Frankl’s book about man’s search for meaning. I vividly remember where I was standing, think I could almost go to the spot on the shelf where I found the book; I think the memory lives clearly because as I scanned through the book, I became haunted with the images that came from its pages and moved by the strength of which it testified. I sat down, read more, took the book home, and never forgot the lesson.
When I worked as a janitor in high school at a local gym, I tried to find meaning by framing my work as helping provide a wholesome environment for children. When I worked as a cook at Hardee’s, I was helping keep families together by providing a convenient and affordable place to escape and relax. When I worked alone as a chemist on army contracts, I was helping preserve freedom. When I worked as an ER physician, the value of saving lives was plain but then the challenge was to find meaning in the suffering around me.
These examples (from my work life) show what I strove for; but the practical, every-day accomplishment of finding meaning in the pain, drudgery, and short-term injustice that swirls around me and everyone I know has not always been a task at which I’ve been successful. Sometimes, I left the gym nasty and tired and just angry at how inconsiderate people can be. Sometimes I left the ER angry and confused that innocent people came to me in pain and disease at no fault of their own: how do you hold responsible a child molested, a young mother killed by a drunk driver, the crying child with sickle cell disease, the gasping child with cystic fibrosis?
You don’t hold them responsible. And as you wade through the pain of the ER working with nurses and technicians with their own problems, sometimes it feels as if the world is thick with pain and thin with meaning.
In looking for meaning in suffering, I’ve found some help in Boethius’ book “Consolation of Philosophy,” in William James’ “Pragmatism,” in Oswald Chambers’ “The Christian Disciplines,” in the scriptures of the Holy Bible and the Bagavad Gita as well as in Frankl’s writings. This book by Dr. Pattakos belongs on the shelf with those books as a classic about how to find meaning instead of power or pleasure and then uncover joy in meaning.
I write this reverently with the awareness that I’m immature in these matters–I’ve looked into the face of a quadraplegic man, bed bound for over 20 years, and heard him talk eloquently about how his accident was good fortune because it brought him closer to GOD; I don’t know if I could do that. I’ve had to tell the mother that her child didn’t live and watched her accept the news with strength and peace. I’ve seen this and more and so know that some do find meaning in situations heavy with pain. This is the skill that this book teaches: the skill of finding peace and meaning and the resultant deep joy.
The model used by Dr. Pattakos is the working life: how to find meaning at work. Like swinging two bats before walking to the plate to swing one, Dr. Pattakos draws from Dr. Frankl’s writings about severe pain and unbelievable injustice to develop a pattern for finding meaning in the often painful pathways at work. The exercises make practical the every-day application of finding meaning and so uncovering joy and effectiveness. Simple exercises that take only a few minutes help plant each chapter in the fiber of thought and peel back the dirty details to the core meaning of work. Practical, easy exercises to help develop a valuable skill of mind and soul.
 My son, Luke, sitting between his friend and older brother, William–all wearing capes.
So, do I always feel like I have a cape on? No. Sometimes, I feel sort of beat up and like I’m hiding in my bat-cave. But, then that’s not so bad. Even Christ would walk away from thousands of people pleading for his help, and drive away in a boat or go to a mountain to pray. But, with this attitude, rest is something you do after battle to get ready for the next round. Recreation is not meaningless–it is re-creation.
Once, a few years ago, when my children were younger, and I was trying to get dinner ready, and keep clothes washed, and house clean, and still be single-father and physician, I asked my Mother how she kept herself going when my sisters and I were young. She said, “When I felt tired, I would just stop and think of how much I loved the three of you.”
Seems like a simple way to put on your cape.
Emerson said, “Give all to Love.”
So, to be healthy:
1. Find your cape and remind yourself you cannot do your mission with your cape if you do not take time to do what you need to stay healthy.
2. To find what you will do when you wear your cape, ask yourself, “Who do I love and what must I do to take care of them.”
For my mother, her apron was her cape and I was the mission of love.
For my billionaire friend, his business suit is his cape and thousands of people who need his services are his mission of love.
For me, the jacket I like to wear when I write is my cape or my physician’s coat; and, the people who read my letters or books or who come into my officer or who will come into the offices of the physicians I will train are my mission of love.
A recent New England Journal Article motivated me recently to focus more on a particular problem. I’ll be starting another class by phone and in my office for the help of people with type 2 diabetes. The guarantee will be to get you off your medications (with normal blood sugars) in 6 months or I will not keep your money. You can live in another state but you must be willing to travel to my office for a first visit before I can begin treatment (we would work together with your primary care physician close to your home).
I have become more convinced than ever that I need to put on my cape in this area after a recent New England Journal Article showed that our best treatment of diabetes with medications causes and increase in death and increased weight and no decrease in heart disease. The editorial in the New England Journal stressed the idea that physicians should be focusing more on life style changes.
Please DO NOT STOP your medications after reading the above articles. The problem with diabetes medication and trying to do a life-style change is that it can be very complicated and even dangerous without expert help. If you stop your medication without decreasing your food, then you get dangerously high blood sugar and can die. If you lower your food without lowering your medication, then you can get dangerously low blood sugar and die. So, you must lower food and medication simultaneously. If you combine this with increased exercise and manipulating other hormones that change the way insulin works (like testosterone and thyroid), many can come off all medications and have normal blood sugars within one to six months. I have proven this in my office over and over again for the past 8 years. The problem with doing this is that it is very labor intensive for me and for the patient (we usually talk on the phone every day for the first one to two weeks and then weekly after that). Also, it takes combining several proven therapies in a unique way that frankly i have never seen done as effectively as what happens in my office.
I plan on formalizing this program, proving with good data collection that it works and then teaching other physicians. If you know anyone who has type two diabetes (adult onset) that might benefit you should forward this email to them or ask them to send their name and email address to me at DrRunels@Runels.com.
I do a health lesson that comes out a few times a week (sometimes daily when schedule allows). If you are interested in reading the almost Daily Health Strategies then click here to find out how and why.
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 Charles Runels, MD
Still the best selling sex manual on Amazon.com (because it’s more about spiritual and physical health and how that improves sex): Anytime…for as Long as You Want: Strength, Genius, Libido, & Erection by Integrative Sex Transmutation |
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06.16.08
Posted in 365 Health Strategies at 10:47 am by Dr. Runels
| 2000 years ago, when John wrote a letter to his friend, Gaius, he told him a couple of things that give important clues to health.Here’ what he said (my interpretation of verses 1-3)”:
“Hello Gaius. It’s me John. I truly love you.”
“Above every thing, I wish and pray that you would enjoy prosperity and excellent health, just as you enjoy a healthy spiritual life.”
“I really became very happy when our mutual friends told me that you live by the truth you know. That is why I think you will see health and prosperity just as you now enjoy spiritual health.”
So what’s the health strategy of the day (what can you actually do)? Do what you know you should do today. Live the truth you know today. Don’t worry that you may know something different, or something more tomorrow. Just do your best to live what you know to be true–today.
(To see this lesson as a video of Dr. Runels, Click Here)
The Purpose of These Daily Strategies
__ 3 John
__ Walk 3 miles: actual miles _____
__ 5 fruits or vegetables: actual _____
__ Virtue: Tranquility: be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
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 Charles Runels, MD
Still the best selling sex manual on Amazon.com (because it’s more about spiritual and physical health and how that improves sex): Anytime…for as Long as You Want: Strength, Genius, Libido, & Erection by Integrative Sex Transmutation |
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