Study – Grow – Know

Rebounding for Health?

December 11, 2019 at 12:39 PM 2 comments

For those who have been following this blog for any length of time, you know that I’ve shared details of my health restoration over the past six plus years. My intention is not to bore people with this information, but to enlighten.

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19 KJV)

I like this question followed by his comment from Paul the apostle. He’s a bit incredulous when he simply asks, “What?” It’s a bit of a backhanded compliment to the Corinthian believers because the tone of the question/comment is that they clearly should have been aware of the fact that their bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit to indwell. This is an absolutely fascinating truth to consider. God, the Holy Spirit has taken up residence within us! How sublime is that?!

Because of this truth – the fact that God actually resides within us – we have an obligation. That obligation addresses every aspect of our lives; how we talk, how we “walk” and how we think. When I say how we “walk” I’m referring not to putting one foot in front of the other, but in actuality, how we carry ourselves, how we live, how we engage other people and the things of this world.

Over six years ago, I was on five blood pressure medications. The reason I was on five was due to the fact that my blood pressure was not easy to get under control. The reason it was not easy to get under control was due to the fact that at 5’7″ tall, I was a whopping 255 blob! I recall my heart specialist telling me that if they could not get my blood pressure under control, I’d likely develop congestive heart failure. If you know anything about that, it’s a slow process of dying. It’s not a good way to go because it’s drawn out and over time, simply weakens the heart muscle. Eventually, they got things under control, however, the side effects from the blood pressure meds were not wonderful. I was tired to fatigued most of the time and just did not feel great at all even though my blood pressure was more in line with where it should be.

I quoted the above verse from Corinthians because normally when people read that, they think in terms of spiritual health, not necessary physical health. However, I contend that the two are often connected. Thinking back over the past six or so years, I realize just how bad I felt and it was due to my lack of physical health. Because of that, my body was constantly reminding me of what I could no longer do and I hated it. This affected my spiritual attitude.

Today, I look back and realize the major changes that have taken place in my health and it is due to the gentle leading and instruction by God to “heal” me (along with my obedience). It has been a long process and He did it to bring me to the point I am currently at.

Just recently, I was able to stop taking the last remaining blood pressure medication so I’m now off all of them. You have no idea how exciting that is unless you’ve been there! While blood pressure medications are good in being able to reduce high blood pressure, staving off more serious problems (stroke, congestive heart failure, etc.), the reality is that like all pharmaceuticals, because they are man-made chemicals, blood pressure meds come with side effects and these side effects can be problematic, varying from person to person.

I have found that Paul’s directive to the Corinthian believers applies to me…and you. I used to eat what I thought was decent food. Unfortunately, most of it was highly processed with tons of chemicals and preservatives added to it. They’re needed solely for shelflife in stores and after purchasing, as well as being taste enhancers. But we eat those chemicals because they are part of the food we buy. The cheaper the food, the more chemicals in it. What do these chemicals do to our bodies? They chip away at our health, weakening our immune systems so that problems within our DNA come to the fore. Cancer is the most notable result of this.

One of the worst (for me and my wife) additives that is added to processed foods is MSG (or monosodium glutamate). This chemical is essentially a flavor enhancer, specifically designed to make our foods and drinks taste much better than they would without it. It is also, unfortunately, an addicting agent, meaning that our bodies begin to crave that particular chemical and we want more of it.

Think about drinking something sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The basic molecular structure of HFCS is very similar to real sugar, but with a huge difference. In real sugar, the molecules are bound together by a protein so your body has to actually work (use energy) to break it down. With HFCS, there is no binding protein so when you drink a soda or anything sweetened with HFCS, it goes directly into your bloodstream. Once in your bloodstream, it can eventually create tiny pinholes in your stomach linking, which allows the contents of your stomach to bleed out into your body. This results in what many health practitioners refer to as “leaky gut.” It’s not good at all and takes months to heal.

However, the food industry does what they believe is a great job in hiding MSG in our food. In fact, MSG is called many things and if you begin to look at labels, you’ll begin to see how often MSG is coded as something else. Below is a partial list of likely food additives that are simply code for MSG:

• Any “flavors” or “flavoring” [i.e. natural flavors, raspberry flavor, vanilla flavor, etc..]
• Any “hydrolyzed protein”
• Any protein that has been “fermented”
• Any protein that is “ultra-pasteurized”
• Anything “enzyme modified”
• Anything “hydrolyzed”
• Anything “protein fortified”
• Anything containing “enzymes”
• Anything enriched
• Autolyzed yeast
• Auxi grow sprayed on conventional fruits and vegetables
• Barley malt
• Bouillon and broth
• Brown rice syrup
• Calcium caseinate, Sodium caseinate
• Calcium glutamate (E 623)
• Carrageenan (E 407)
• Citric acid, Citrate (E 330)
• Corn starch
• Corn syrup
• Dextrose
• Gelatin
• Glutamic acid (E 620), Glutamate (E 620)
• Lipolyzed butter fat
• Magnesium glutamate (E 625)
• Malt extract
• Maltodextrin
• Milk powder Reduced fat milk (skim; 1%; 2%) most things low fat or no fat
• Modified food starch
• Monoammonium glutamate (E 624)
• Monopotassium glutamate (E 622)
• Monosodium glutamate (E 621)
• Natrium glutamate
• Pectin (E 440)
• Protease
• Rice syrup
• Seasonings/Spices
• Soy protein isolate
• Soy protein, soy protein concentrate
• Soy sauce
• Soy sauce extract
• Stock
• Textured protein
• Vetsin
• Vitamin enriched
• Whey protein isolate
• Whey protein, whey protein concentrate
• Xanthum gum
• Yeast extract
• Yeast food, Yeast nutrient

As you can see from the above list, it is extremely important to read every label on every food you buy. I’m not going to tell you how to live your life, but clearly, Paul is telling us that we need to care for our bodies. The first line of defense is often what we put into our mouths.

I’ve seen a tremendous increase in my own health and as I shared this past Sunday in the adult Sunday school class I’m currently teaching on James, we all have only so many allotted days to live, given to us by God Himself. For me, I want to ensure that as many of those days as possible are filled with good health. The only other choice is to not care what’s eaten and suffer the terrible health consequences because of it.

One other thing that has begun to help me mightily is a suggestion presented to me by friends at church. The wife is a dietician and she’s been a major help in providing information that has allowed me to fine-tune my dietary habits. But it’s not just food that can make or break our health. Exercise plays an important role.

Our friend introduced us to something called “rebounding.” Turns out it’s bouncing on a personal trampoline. Sounds crazy? It did to me as well until I began researching it and found that it was good enough for NASA decades ago. They found that when astronauts returned from space trips, they often suffered from loss of muscle mass due to weightlessness of space. NASA found that one of the quickest and most effective ways of regaining that muscle mass was to jump and exercise on a mini-trampoline.

My wife and I opted to purchase a mini-trampoline for around $35 at Amazon. We wanted to get the hang of things and see how it felt. After we received ours, we began using it and I did see some benefit to it. However, I also began to realize that because we only spent $35 for it, it wasn’t the best rebounder. You really had to work at lifting off from the mat during a bounce. Because of that, I ended up pulling a muscle in the back of my left leg so I was out for about a week or so while that healed.

Once that healed we visited our friends and they encouraged us to try their trampoline out, which we did. It seemed effortless compared to the one we had bought so eventually we bought one like theirs (around $250). The difference is phenomenal to say the least!

I have begun to notice that my legs are getting much stronger after using the trampoline only 15 minutes per day. When I used to bend down to pick up something (remember, I’m nearly 63), I had to actually go down slowly and rest on one of my knees. Now, I am able to squat and stand back up from a squatting position! I’ve also noticed my arms and stomach muscles are getting stronger as well and so is my balance.

Working out on a mini-trampoline rebounder is actually quite a work out. I’ve learned to run on the trampoline as part of my workout. This does a number of great things for my body since this is an aerobic exercise. It also has to do with positive effects on the lymph nodes as well as heart rate and blood pressure. Here’s just one link that talks about the positive effects of rebounding if you’re interested: Rebounding for Health?

Each of us has only so many days that the good Lord has allotted to us. We can enjoy those days because we enjoy good health (which does affect our spiritual health!), or we can slowly die a little more each day. Eventually my body will give out and it’ll be time to go Home because I live in a dying body due to sin. But I do not want to be like the Corinthians whom the Lord put to “sleep” (death) early because of their carnality and lack of concern. They were doing it wrong. I was doing it wrong.

It is imperative that we do all we can to create and maintain good health. That is part of what Paul is saying. I’ve noticed that even a cold doesn’t hang around long anymore.

We decide what goes into our bodies via our mouths just as we decide what goes into our minds via our eyes and thoughts. We must take a stand and do what is only beneficial for our bodies and minds. This is the difficult part of living the Christian life, but it must be done and it can only be done by us as we cooperate with the indwelling Holy Spirit.

If you do not think you have the power to overcome, then please take it to the Lord. He will help you understand that He is with you, strengthening you from within because He lives within you. He wants you to be in health even as your soul prospers (3 John 1:2). This requires our cooperation with God. If He can do it with me, He can do it with you. It may not happen as quickly as you’d like, but it will happen if you are serious about wanting to improve your health and willing to make the sacrifices needed. Even if you suffer from some strange malady, improving your health otherwise can often positively impact that malady.

So many illnesses and health conditions can actually be avoided if we will only learn to eat the right types of foods and avoiding most/all processed foods, eating organic whenever possible and getting rid of the junk food. These steps alone will push you in the right direction.

Take it to God and take care of your body. There are things you can do to improve your health and don’t be misled if you are not overweight! What you eat does affect your health for good or ill.

PS – if you choose to eliminate foods with MSG in them, you’ll notice that the foods you do eat often taste bland. This is due to the effect of the MSG that caused your taste buds to be very excited. Don’t worry though because in a short time, natural foods will begin to taste very rich, the way God created them!

Entry filed under: christianity, Healthy Living, Life in America, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, Religious - Christian - Theology, salvation. Tags: bad health, good health, health, illness, rebounding, trampoline.