Thoughts on Peace

I recently had an exchange with legendary underground musician, Helios Creed. He posted a bulletin expressing his frustration and exasperation with the state of world affairs, and I responded with some ideas on peace. I will quote his bulletin and my response will follow:

From: Helios Creed
Date: Aug 21, 2006 11:30 AM
"A THOUGHT"
you know i wish all us like minded people could get together and get away from all the crazy war greedy mutha fuckers i have a bad feeling about whats going down? but us peace loving peeps are not orginized or even have a place to go to get away from the madness it seems that its going to cover the whole planet. do you have any thoughts on the matter. are we going to get screwed over and watch mankind make this place hell and just do nothing and go along with all this bullshit . i hope that the great spirit gives us an out because frankly i'm fed up with mankind i've fuckin had anuff of the fucking bullshit and this is only the beggining. i feel like we are going to get fucked over real bad and i'm not afraid to talk about it. let me know your thoughts on the matter... sorry if i seem a little harsh but i'm not one to just do nothing and watch the haters keep fucking things over..

And now my response:

"Peace begins within ourselves and in our own relationships. We must meditate on peace and teach others to do the same. We must radiate peace and love to everyone we come in contact with. Let it show in our every word and every action. We must not judge and condemn others just because they are different from us. We mustn't try to force others to fit into our mold. Instead, we should marvel at and celebrate the differences in others. We should encourage and cultivate diversity and individuality instead of conformity. Understanding and acceptance is the basis of peace. If we cannot do these things in our own lives, how can we ever expect to see peace in the world?"

Ok, so maybe these ideas aren't entirely original, maybe they're too lofty, impractical, and idealistic, and they don't offer an immediate solution to existing problems, but still.... What else can we do on an individual basis to promote peace in the world? We certainly can't expect our so-called "leaders" to bail us out and fix everything. Just look at the fine mess they've gotten us into already.

I'd like to hear feedback from others on this. I'm looking for positive ideas and constructive solutions. I don't want to hear negativity and griping about everything that's wrong with the world. There's already enough of that and it doesn't help anything. I'm looking for practical answers that can be applied on an individual basis. Any thoughts?

The Cure for Depression

I have suffered from depression for most of my adult life. I've been on a variety of anti-depressants over the years, but none of them were ever able to completely lift the dark cloud hanging over my life. They enabled me to function in daily life, but there was still the occasional bout of severe depression and the suicidal thoughts.

Now I'm pleased to say that I've found a natural cure that works even better than anti-depressants, without the side effects. I've been completely anti-depressant free for the last six months, and I feel as good or better than I ever did on anti-depressants.

What is this miraculous cure, you ask? It's none other than Vitamin D. Where do you get it? The best source is the sun, but it's also found in cod liver oil and synthetic forms. I started taking cod liver oil supplements around the beginning of this year. Within a couple of weeks, my mood had improved so dramatically that I was able to taper off of my anti-depressants. By the middle of February, I was completely off of the pills and feeling great.

I started by taking cod liver oil softgels (not to be confused with fish oil) four times a day. Later in the year, I also started getting some sun exposure which helped even more. Many experts are now recommending 15-20 minutes of sun exposure 3-4 times a week without sunscreen. This may sound a bit controversial considering all the hype about skin cancer, but as long as you limit your exposure and don't burn, it's perfectly safe. You can also minimize your risk by eating a healthy diet high in omega 3s and antioxidants (which I do).

Do you suppose there's a connection between the fact that so many goths are depressed, and the way they avoid the sun so they can look all pale and deathly? I definitely think there is. I've been there myself and I've seen it too many times.

Some of you may think this sounds a bit far-fetched, but there's plenty of scientific research to support it. Vitamin D deficiency has been implicated in a variety of diseases including depression, diabetes, obesity, certain forms of cancer, and osteoporosis. The fact is that most Americans are deficient in vitamin D. The medical community doesn't want people to know any of this because they can't make any money selling vitamin D.

For more info, visit mercola.com and do a search on vitamin D.

Update - 8/16/2006

Regarding the vitamin D in milk: While it's true that vitamin D is added to all of the commercially-produced milk sold in the US, it's such a small amount that I wouldn't consider it a good source. Besides, there are so many other problems associated with drinking pasteurized milk, but I won't go into that here. (That's an entire topic on it's own)

The US RDA for vitamin D is 400iu, but most experts agree that that's way too low. Optimally, you should get between 1000-2000iu a day when taking vitamin D orally. You'd have to drink 10-20 glasses of milk to get that much vitamin D. Or you could sit out in the sun for 15 minutes and your skin will produce 20,000iu, the equivalent of 200 glasses of milk. Note that it's possible to OD on vitamin D when taking it orally (don't exceed the 1000-2000iu range, depending on your body), but you can't OD on vitamin D from the sun. Your skin will simply stop producing it when you have enough.