Healthy Homes Asia

by Phillip Day

Almost all the people who contact me for help or phone our organisation do so as a direct result of your personal referrals!

Every day each of us encounters people with health problems who don't mind unburdening themselves. The secret is to find a fast way to point them in the right direction without having to get into the two-hour speech and miss your train. At the heart of this vital service is an educational process. We must all simply become better informed and educated on the whole health and disease enchilada - yes, especially me.

To this end I encourage you to become familiar with Credence's books, DVDs and CDs which can help you in your encounters. These have a solid track record of bringing people into the fold by explaining the solid credibility and science behind nutritional and lifestyle treatments for a whole range of conditions.

They will almost never hear this from conventional doctors. Your brief encounter with someone, giving them a DVD or a book, can make the difference in what path they choose to take for their illness, and even whether they make it or not. A study of numerous testimonies over my career reveals exactly this.

George Bernard Shaw remarked that the worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them but to be indifferent to them, which is the essence of inhumanity. Just taking an interest in a person's predicament and saying, "Why don't you check out ....?" is often all it takes to help relieve the stress of feeling ‘alone against insuperable odds' and encourage them to take action.

If the patient is a family member, defer to a third party source for information such as Food Matters or Health Wars as most have you have already worked out by now that you're never a prophet in your own household.

Keep your eye out for our Credence specials, including free shipping specials.

by Phillip Day

Tell someone you know

‘Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry

over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their

future in someone else's hands, but not you.' - Jim Rohn

Information is a slippery commodity. Most reading this know just how hard it is to tell even someone who loves them information that could literally save their lives. Strangers seem much more amenable. They've never had to wash your dirty laundry. Thankfully, the health problems most suffer on a daily basis are not life-threatening, so most try and live with them the best they can, not even aware of the simple changes to diet and lifestyle that can have the most astounding outcome on their situation.

Information overload and apathy

In the age of the (supposedly) high-speed Internet and mass-communications media, the job of trying to help others has become both easier and more frustrating. Today you can hit a button and send a bulletin to millions. But so can others.

The problem is, the sheer amount of new data now available induces a blindness or selectivity to the citizen, causing apathy to set in. I won't get into how the powers that be actually use this to their advantage. Suffice to say that for a person to raise an indolent finger to consider anything that might help them, they have to have a strong motivation to do it.

A personal connection

A cancer patient writes to me and tells me they have cancer. They are frightened and want to live, so they have a strong motivation. I never lose sight of how hard it can be sometimes for someone to phone a complete stranger or send an email into the ether, knowing that the default setting of the world is indifference.

That is why I always answer emails that end up in my in-tray, and when my phone rings, I pick it up and talk to whoever's on the other end, unless it's a call-centre in Bangladesh.

Sadly (or thankfully, depending on your viewpoint), I am only one person, so the task has been to figure out exponential ways to help those who either won't or can't help themselves (the fact that you're reading this means that you know how to help yourself!).

Tools to help you

To this end, Credence and the Campaign for Truth in Medicine have produced or promoted the use of simple tools like books, CDs, DVDs, online films and weekly health tips like this one to get the message out. We have discovered, however, that great though these aids might be, the personal involvement of the troops on the ground in recommending them is the deciding factor.

I wish I could have a $ for everytime someone wrote or called saying, "A friend suggested I should read this book/come to a meeting/listen to that CD/watch an online film..." and got them active.

If there is a single-line equation or push-button solution to any of the world's ills, it's that changing a bad situation into a good one is an act of volition - you have to want to do it, and so do those around you.

It starts with a choice, usually born out of a contempt/disgust/rejection of your current plight. It's often accomplished by someone giving you a gentle, or sometimes not so gentle prod too in the right direction.

Be aware of those around you

This week's health tip, therefore, is to encourage each of you to become aware and sensitive to the problems of those closest to you, and to see if there are simple things you can help them do to help themselves.

The very act of talking to someone about a problem is extremely cathartic and can often produce the required motivation and decision. i.e. "Oh dear. If John/Jane's mentioned it, I better do something about it." Yes, it's a sensitive area but don't let that stop you from trying to help.

Three simple tools to show the uninitiated what else they could be choosing, to become informed and have a giggle while they do it are:

• the Simple Changes book covering 100 aspects of our lives which might need a helping hand
• the Simple Changes DVD, my 55-minute film going over many of these points, and
• the Healing in the Home double CD is a more in-depth look at what we can do for ourselves in our own home.

So onward, I say. Squadron scramble! Douglas Adams once grumbled, "You live and learn. Well, at any rate, you live." Sometimes all it takes is to lower our gaze and look at those local to us. And care enough to want to help them.