Judy: Can you talk about stress; because a lot of people with
Attention Deficits struggle with a lot of stress; and talk about
what goes on in the body with stress?

Ray: Stress chews up a lot of different things. Ah, one of the things it
chews up in great quantity is our hormones. And so it afflicts our
endocrine system in a more arduous situation an’ it has to work harder
because you’re usin’ up hormones; but it’s not just that. It chews up a lot
of things. Stress chews up proteins. So your citric cycle has to function;
(_a word I didn’t know_) cycle has to function at an even faster rate to
replace the proteins you’re chewing up. A lot of things are used in stress.

Stress itself causes many other aberrations, or they exacerbate difficulties;
aberrations that you’re already experiencing in life. So; nutrients are
the things that rebuild the body. If you don’t have the nutrients then you
can’t rebuild the things that are chewed up. The more stressed you are,
the more you CAN be stressed because you don’t have the tools that are used
to reverse stress itself. So,.....

Judy: Mm-hm.

Ray: We’re all under stress. We become more under stress - the more
nutritionally deprived you are, the more stress affects you.
The more it CAN affect you.

Judy: And you become ill?

Ray: Sure! An’ it becomes a vicious cycle in the wrong direction.
It CAUSES illness. That’s been proven in many different studies now.

Judy: I’ve read that; yeah.

Ray: That stress causes and/or exacerbates illness…..

Judy: And that’s been known for a long time. I’ve read that in OLD
Mental Health Journal articles.

(I was thinking, “Some of these were 5-10 year old journal issues,” admittedly!)

Ray: Excellent.

Judy: I also read in those journal articles that once you reach your
stress threshold, you don’t go back to the way you were; you become
broken down by it, you become more fragile from it.

Ray: That’s true in some cases. It’s not true in all of ‘em.

Ray: In many cases, you can completely reverse the stressful situation
an’ go back to a position of human health that is just as good, if not better
than it was before. There are some places though that you can do harm
with stress that doesn’t appear to be reversible. That’s true in those cases.
An’ nutrients are going to be of benefit in both areas. You get to a certain point where,.....

I heard a Psychologist speak yesterday about gettin’ to a point with pain,
where it’s like a switch that comes on with stress, that makes the stress
MUCH greater than what it was; an’ it becomes like a multiple, like the Richter
Scale is with an earthquake, where you have pain up to a certain point, an’ then
all-of-a-sudden it jumps in a manifold leap. It’s because you don’t have the right
nutrients there to deal with the difficulty.

An’ when that occurs, then it’s just gonna be that much more difficult to
come back to a point where you have that minimal pain again, or can get to a
point where you’re not hurtin;’ where you don’t have that pain.

Judy: So you’re talking, then, about ‘endorphins?’

Ray: But that’s just ONE thing.

Judy: ONE thing.
(acknowledging nod)

Ray: One thing. FIVE THOUSAND different things that the body should use.

Judy: So then, what you’re talking about is, pretty much, the glands.....

Ray: Your endocrine system is your hormone system. And it’s somethin’
that’s very involved in supporting your capability to deal with stress
among many other things that the body can do. That ah, absolutely if
you get to a point of stress that is traumatic, to the point where it’s
startin’ to cause damage, then sometimes that damage is somethin’ that
you’re not gonna get back to a point that’s better again.

Judy: Damage to the body.

Ray: Yeah. But in many cases you can; in many cases. So I wouldn’t
say that in all cases you get to a certain point in stress an’ it’s
not reparable, because in many cases, it is.

Judy: So nutrients are a big key - right there.

Ray: This is a human defense system that we call the Immune System
of the body. I think it’s capable of dealing with so many things
that we’re not aware of, if we just give it the right tools.
If we give it the right building blocks. What are the building blocks?
What are the things it works with? The things that we consume.
Those are the things that allow the immune system to function as well as it can.

And in many cases we’re just not doin’ that. We’re not providing
the body with the basic nutrients that allow our own host defense
system to do its job. I think in years to come - it’s goin’ to
be the biggest “fail-safe” of human health, this providing people
with education about proper nutrition that allows for better health.

Judy: Why is it that doctors don’t know about these things that you’re talking about?

Ray: Well, doctors don’t know how to launch a spaceship to the
moon. It’s not taught in their school. An’ ah, there’s so much
more then TO learn, that ah, (y’know); you’ve got to take
somethin’ out of their curriculum in order to add something new.

In the course of the last few years, 34 of America’s current 125 medical schools
have started teaching nutrition/alternative health care in medical schools.
But prior to a few years ago, that didn’t occur at all.
So I don’t think we can expect our health professionals to know everything.

I think that goes back to the same thing I said a minute ago; we’re sayin’
“Our doctor is responsible for knowin’ everything, ‘cause I don’t wanna know nuthin!”
That’s ridiculous. That’s sayin’ “I’m not responsible for my own personal health.”
So I don’t expect my doctor to know everything. I don’t think that they SHOULD
be omniscient. I think God’s omniscient.

And I think for us to ‘spect our doctors to know everything is unrealistic.
They have strong continuing education programs, an’ there is a strong push
now for them to add nutrition to that continuing education.
There’s a lot of things they don’t know. But I don’t expect them to.

Judy: A lot of people do, though.
(Ah! laughed again!)

(OK - that’s MY soapbox!!)

Ray: Well, I think that they’re at fault. I think those are the people
who think their doctors are the ones responsible for their health 100 percent. I think
it’s THEIR responsibility to know if they should eat squash or not, or eat cucumbers,
an’ tomatoes, an’ in what quantities an’ what time. I think it’s SILLY for us to think,
“It’s my doctor’s responsibility an’ whatever he tells me, that’s what I’m gonna do.
And if my doctor doesn’t tell me, an’ I’m unhealthy, then I’m just gonna be unhealthy!"
It’s SILLY! That’s puttin’ too much responsibility on that doctor.

It’s just like the responsibility we put on our teachers in school now to be parents to our kids.
‘Cause we’re refusin’ to be parents anymore. That’s unrealistic. A teacher cannot take on
30 kids an’ be their teacher and parent. That’s what we’ve decided in the last few years;
that our teachers are parents.