I have to stop myself at one coffee per day. My health was deteriorating, I was drinking coffee like it was glasses of water... It's not easy to have a balanced life with healthy habits. The hardest thing for me going senior is implementing discipline, it never was my forte. Now I have to kick my b... to go to bed at a reasonable time, stop chips, stop coffee, stop the I-pad in the evening, etc... LOL!!!
The most important nutritional deficiency is vitamin D3, which can't be fixed with a "balanced diet", since no food - fortified or not - has more than a trace of it. UV-B light on ideally white skin can create plenty of it, but this is not generally available all year round to people who live far from the equator. UV-B damages DNA, so raising the risk of skin cancer.
Please see the research articles on 25-hydroxyvitamin D (made in the liver from vitamin D3) and the immune system, cited and discussed at: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/. The immune system can only function properly with 50 ng/mL (125 nmol/L = 1 part in 20,000,000 by mass) circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Without proper vitamin D supplementation or recent extensive UV-B exposure on ideally white skin, most people have half or less than this. Those with brown or black skin who live far from the equator and who do not properly supplement vitamin D3 typically have even lower levels all year round. This is probably the most significant, easily correctable, reason for these people having generally poorer health than those with white skin.
The above page begins with recommendations from New Jersey based Professor of Medicine Sunil Wimalawansa on how much vitamin D3 to take, as ratios of body weight, with higher ratios for those suffering from obesity. These are Prof. Wimalawansa's recently slightly simplified version of the recommendations in his 2022 article in Nutrients: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/14/2997. This will attain at least the 50 ng/mL 125 nmol/L level of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D the immune system needs to function properly. This is higher than can be attained with the very small government-approved supplemental intake quantities of vitamin D3, which at best can attain about the 20 ng/mL 50 nmol/L level which the kidneys need to regulate calcium-phosphate-bone metabolism.
For 70 kg (154 lb) without obesity about 0.125 mg vitamin D3 is a good amount to supplement, on average, per day. This is also known as "5000 IU" a day. This is a gram every 22 years - and pharma grade vitamin D3 costs about USD$2.50 a gram, ex-factory.
Governments and many doctors recommend much smaller amounts, such as 0.015 mg (15 millionths of a gram) AKA "600 IU" a day.
Great post, John, and a great photo. I really appreciate B&W LIFE magazine style shots
The way you describe your habitual routine and lifestyle, I have a feeling you might be a Projector. I know that Dr. McCullough is a Projector for certain.
What’s a Projector?
It’s one of the revelations brought by the Human Design System - the science of differentiation. The system reveals that we are not organized randomly, but that humanity is divided into 4 Types that are essentially genetic constructs for purpose. That is, just like bees and ants, where you have a drone, a worker, or a warrior, so with human beings.
In other words, just like the mechanical construct of cars, in which all made by the same parts; a chassis, engine wheels and so forth, but in totality, each vehicle serves a different purpose (The specs of a semi-trailer is very different from that of the city car), so with us, humans. We all look the same; we’re all made from the same parts, but as a holistic vehicle we’re divided into 4 Types. Each Type has a specific and unique purpose in that efficient organization of the whole.
Like all kinds of systems that try to divide human personalities into groups and subsets, what’s appealing, at least to me, is that this is not a philosophical construct. It’s coming from our genetic matrix.
So Projectors are one of the Types. They occupy about 22% of the population. They do not have consistent access to energy of their own. The production of energy, as the fertile life force that permeates everything, is the byproduct of the Builders Type. They are the majority, around 68% of the population. They are responsible for building our civilizations from time immemorial.
Without Builders there is no life on this planet.
The Projector, on the other hand, is receptive to this energy by which its role is to guide towards a finalization of a process/task.
Projectors are designed to take in the other. That’s why they have a penetrating gaze. Their forte lies in the unique ability to penetrate and recognize the other, know them inside out, to see things from a broader perspective while being endowed with an ability to study and master systems. Ultimately, for the purpose of guiding.
When a builder talks to a projector they feel that they are seen. This is their power. They’re designed to recognize and be recognized. However, the other side of it is that their interest and curiosity in the other, if it comes uninvited, can render the opposite results.
.
.
The other value in the Human Design system is the accurate mapping of conditioning in between people and their interaction. It reveals that conditioning elements that affect psychology and behavior are no longer something amorphous and abstract, but can be pinpointed and measured scientifically.
The system maps out in great accuracy what we are pulled towards; the things that are not consistent in us are exactly the things we’re attracted to the most. This is what the Buddhists call 'cravings', which is the mind's way to pull us towards the things we try to live out and satiate, only to discover again and again that it's not for us to indulge in, but just to sample here and there.
To me, this is profound. We always try to find a singularity - especially in modern science- a unified culprit behind any phenomena we observe and experience. It is clear to me that the closest one can come to a culprit, as the root of all human ailment, it’s the mechanics of conditioning; or the lack of knowledge thereof and the inherent repercussions for a particular vehicle.
Conditioning is ok. But at a certain point it passes a certain threshold and it becomes amplified. What that means in this context is that Projectors, due to them not having consistent access to energy, this becomes the thing that they’re most drawn to. The life force is very attractive. It’s fuzzy, it's energetic. It’s fertile. But like everything, too much of it, disorients them and their internal systems.
So what happens is that Projectors usually become the super slaves of society. They amplify the energy that doesn’t belong to them, but that which comes from the Builders around them. So they run around burnt out. Projectors are not designed to do. They’re not designed to try to get things done on their own.
They are the ones who end up staying late. They’re the ones who indulge in coffee and other stimulants. They’re the ones who have very little sleep, who get addicted to workout, exercise and even sex, because this is their way of dealing with the conditioning. This becomes their body’s way of dealing with the excess energy they’ve taken from their surroundings - the Builders’ world.
Projectors are designed to go to lie down before they go to sleep, and go earlier. Whereas Builders are designed to go to sleep when they crash; when they no longer have ‘juice’. For Builders, it's actually harmful to have a sleep regimen. If one has children who are Builder type, which is very likely, it’s detrimental to them to have a set time. Builders are designed to exhaust their entire energy reservoir each day; to crash into their sleep.
In a perverse way their roles are reversed. Builders, who are designed to go to sleep only when they’re exhausted, are the ones who become rigid about going to sleep early and have a set time, and Projectors and other non-energy Types, who are designed to be conservative with their energy, go to sleep really really late, all exhausted. They then repeat the same cycle day in and day out, simply because they’re unaware about the mechanics of conditioning.
In a society that pressures everyone to go about and constantly do and accomplish things, getting things done and scratching tasks off a never ending task list, however, it's incredibly difficult to unshackle oneself from such homogenized conditioning. But that’s what’s correct for all non-energy Types.
.
.
This is heretical knowledge. I have no expectation this will be embraced. But I have experimented with this on my own, and my own personal experience has verified to me how accurate it is. I am a Projector, and for years I used to run around like a "Duracell bunny", never knowing when enough is enough . Until I realized that I was living a life that did not belong to what I am about.
I believe that society's attempt to give everyone the same formula, in pretty much everything, has shown time and time again that this is no longer applicable.
Now practice knowing how awesome and important you are…. Know that people like us need you to be well. We need you to sleep., exercise, avoid sugar and processed seed oils. When we take care of ourselves, we take care of all of us. You are worth it. You are important. May you have beautiful dreams in the abundance of restorative sleep coming your way.
I'll take a good country doctor any day to the ones we have now. That is for sure. I am old enough to recall when our family doctor came to the house if we were really sick. Yes, he carried the brown bag that included the stethoscope.
I can’t drink too much alcohol or I have disrupted sleep. I went for 3 months without a drop and my sleep was amazing. Now I try to drink earlier in the day and drink water for a couple of hours before I sleep, dips not cups. Huge difference
1). Go to bed and rise at the same times every day.
2). Get at least ten minutes of sunlight as soon as possible after Helios rises.
3). Only drink coffee in the morning hours, preferably before 9:00 a.m.
4). Each day, prioritize doing the nagging and annoying things on your list. If you leave them undone, your mind will race around them at 3:00 a.m.
5). Exercise daily, preferably in the morning.
6). Take a Vitamin D supplement, especially if you aren’t getting daily sunshine.
7). Cease looking at electronic, light-emitting devices after sunset.
8). Avoid heavy meals for dinner.
9). Avoid alcohol.
10). For at least a couple of hours before bedtime, do relaxing things like listening to classical music, playing an instrument, meditating, or reading an amusing book. Do not read or watch distressing things before bedtime."
Haha! After we fix covid you could try your hand at comedy. ;-)
Dr Huberman on youtube has a lot of info. on sleep protocol. Also, Australians might be interested in Flinders University’s Sleep Health team programme : Australia's Sleep Revolution with Dr Michael Mosley is a new three-part TV series about the nation’s sleep. It premiered in March 2024 on SBS TV and SBS On Demand, and examines common sleep problems and their effects on people's lives and the impact nationally and beyond.
My issue is the 3 AM wake up, with my brain mulling over all the To-Do’s floating around in that space called my skull. That, and chronic sinus congestion that results in the pounding 3 AM headache that only an upright position and a cup of hot coffee applied to my forehead will cure. Sigh…This article is a good reminder about avoiding blue light before bed, a very bad habit I have not shaken nor have I given it an honest try. Maybe I’ll try again.
Great piece. Thank you. I'd drop the qualifier on the Vitamin D recommendation. Every adult should take at least 5,000 IU daily. That dosage will achieve a Vitamin D blood level of 40 nanograms per milliliter or more.
I have to stop myself at one coffee per day. My health was deteriorating, I was drinking coffee like it was glasses of water... It's not easy to have a balanced life with healthy habits. The hardest thing for me going senior is implementing discipline, it never was my forte. Now I have to kick my b... to go to bed at a reasonable time, stop chips, stop coffee, stop the I-pad in the evening, etc... LOL!!!
Excellent John , thank you , you’re such a great writer , I thoroughly enjoy your work ! Take your good doc friends advice though .
Bon Weekend!
The most important nutritional deficiency is vitamin D3, which can't be fixed with a "balanced diet", since no food - fortified or not - has more than a trace of it. UV-B light on ideally white skin can create plenty of it, but this is not generally available all year round to people who live far from the equator. UV-B damages DNA, so raising the risk of skin cancer.
Please see the research articles on 25-hydroxyvitamin D (made in the liver from vitamin D3) and the immune system, cited and discussed at: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/. The immune system can only function properly with 50 ng/mL (125 nmol/L = 1 part in 20,000,000 by mass) circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Without proper vitamin D supplementation or recent extensive UV-B exposure on ideally white skin, most people have half or less than this. Those with brown or black skin who live far from the equator and who do not properly supplement vitamin D3 typically have even lower levels all year round. This is probably the most significant, easily correctable, reason for these people having generally poorer health than those with white skin.
The above page begins with recommendations from New Jersey based Professor of Medicine Sunil Wimalawansa on how much vitamin D3 to take, as ratios of body weight, with higher ratios for those suffering from obesity. These are Prof. Wimalawansa's recently slightly simplified version of the recommendations in his 2022 article in Nutrients: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/14/2997. This will attain at least the 50 ng/mL 125 nmol/L level of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D the immune system needs to function properly. This is higher than can be attained with the very small government-approved supplemental intake quantities of vitamin D3, which at best can attain about the 20 ng/mL 50 nmol/L level which the kidneys need to regulate calcium-phosphate-bone metabolism.
For 70 kg (154 lb) without obesity about 0.125 mg vitamin D3 is a good amount to supplement, on average, per day. This is also known as "5000 IU" a day. This is a gram every 22 years - and pharma grade vitamin D3 costs about USD$2.50 a gram, ex-factory.
Governments and many doctors recommend much smaller amounts, such as 0.015 mg (15 millionths of a gram) AKA "600 IU" a day.
Great post, John, and a great photo. I really appreciate B&W LIFE magazine style shots
The way you describe your habitual routine and lifestyle, I have a feeling you might be a Projector. I know that Dr. McCullough is a Projector for certain.
What’s a Projector?
It’s one of the revelations brought by the Human Design System - the science of differentiation. The system reveals that we are not organized randomly, but that humanity is divided into 4 Types that are essentially genetic constructs for purpose. That is, just like bees and ants, where you have a drone, a worker, or a warrior, so with human beings.
In other words, just like the mechanical construct of cars, in which all made by the same parts; a chassis, engine wheels and so forth, but in totality, each vehicle serves a different purpose (The specs of a semi-trailer is very different from that of the city car), so with us, humans. We all look the same; we’re all made from the same parts, but as a holistic vehicle we’re divided into 4 Types. Each Type has a specific and unique purpose in that efficient organization of the whole.
Like all kinds of systems that try to divide human personalities into groups and subsets, what’s appealing, at least to me, is that this is not a philosophical construct. It’s coming from our genetic matrix.
So Projectors are one of the Types. They occupy about 22% of the population. They do not have consistent access to energy of their own. The production of energy, as the fertile life force that permeates everything, is the byproduct of the Builders Type. They are the majority, around 68% of the population. They are responsible for building our civilizations from time immemorial.
Without Builders there is no life on this planet.
The Projector, on the other hand, is receptive to this energy by which its role is to guide towards a finalization of a process/task.
Projectors are designed to take in the other. That’s why they have a penetrating gaze. Their forte lies in the unique ability to penetrate and recognize the other, know them inside out, to see things from a broader perspective while being endowed with an ability to study and master systems. Ultimately, for the purpose of guiding.
When a builder talks to a projector they feel that they are seen. This is their power. They’re designed to recognize and be recognized. However, the other side of it is that their interest and curiosity in the other, if it comes uninvited, can render the opposite results.
.
.
The other value in the Human Design system is the accurate mapping of conditioning in between people and their interaction. It reveals that conditioning elements that affect psychology and behavior are no longer something amorphous and abstract, but can be pinpointed and measured scientifically.
The system maps out in great accuracy what we are pulled towards; the things that are not consistent in us are exactly the things we’re attracted to the most. This is what the Buddhists call 'cravings', which is the mind's way to pull us towards the things we try to live out and satiate, only to discover again and again that it's not for us to indulge in, but just to sample here and there.
To me, this is profound. We always try to find a singularity - especially in modern science- a unified culprit behind any phenomena we observe and experience. It is clear to me that the closest one can come to a culprit, as the root of all human ailment, it’s the mechanics of conditioning; or the lack of knowledge thereof and the inherent repercussions for a particular vehicle.
Conditioning is ok. But at a certain point it passes a certain threshold and it becomes amplified. What that means in this context is that Projectors, due to them not having consistent access to energy, this becomes the thing that they’re most drawn to. The life force is very attractive. It’s fuzzy, it's energetic. It’s fertile. But like everything, too much of it, disorients them and their internal systems.
So what happens is that Projectors usually become the super slaves of society. They amplify the energy that doesn’t belong to them, but that which comes from the Builders around them. So they run around burnt out. Projectors are not designed to do. They’re not designed to try to get things done on their own.
They are the ones who end up staying late. They’re the ones who indulge in coffee and other stimulants. They’re the ones who have very little sleep, who get addicted to workout, exercise and even sex, because this is their way of dealing with the conditioning. This becomes their body’s way of dealing with the excess energy they’ve taken from their surroundings - the Builders’ world.
Projectors are designed to go to lie down before they go to sleep, and go earlier. Whereas Builders are designed to go to sleep when they crash; when they no longer have ‘juice’. For Builders, it's actually harmful to have a sleep regimen. If one has children who are Builder type, which is very likely, it’s detrimental to them to have a set time. Builders are designed to exhaust their entire energy reservoir each day; to crash into their sleep.
In a perverse way their roles are reversed. Builders, who are designed to go to sleep only when they’re exhausted, are the ones who become rigid about going to sleep early and have a set time, and Projectors and other non-energy Types, who are designed to be conservative with their energy, go to sleep really really late, all exhausted. They then repeat the same cycle day in and day out, simply because they’re unaware about the mechanics of conditioning.
In a society that pressures everyone to go about and constantly do and accomplish things, getting things done and scratching tasks off a never ending task list, however, it's incredibly difficult to unshackle oneself from such homogenized conditioning. But that’s what’s correct for all non-energy Types.
.
.
This is heretical knowledge. I have no expectation this will be embraced. But I have experimented with this on my own, and my own personal experience has verified to me how accurate it is. I am a Projector, and for years I used to run around like a "Duracell bunny", never knowing when enough is enough . Until I realized that I was living a life that did not belong to what I am about.
I believe that society's attempt to give everyone the same formula, in pretty much everything, has shown time and time again that this is no longer applicable.
I used to have nightmares
now I live them
We’ll done, John.
Now practice knowing how awesome and important you are…. Know that people like us need you to be well. We need you to sleep., exercise, avoid sugar and processed seed oils. When we take care of ourselves, we take care of all of us. You are worth it. You are important. May you have beautiful dreams in the abundance of restorative sleep coming your way.
I realised there was something missing in the doctrine imposed by my catholic school.
I left me to become a free thinker, and it led me to meeting Dr.George King in London 1958.
The life changes when free to search and can lead to surprising Truth which, "Is Indeed Stranger Than Fiction".
Old and 99 now, a bit wiser and still favour beef steaks, but my cook is vegetarian.
I'll take a good country doctor any day to the ones we have now. That is for sure. I am old enough to recall when our family doctor came to the house if we were really sick. Yes, he carried the brown bag that included the stethoscope.
In Canada: Rebel News: Theresa Tam https://www.rebelnews.com/theresa_tam_s_public_health_agency_seeks_to_monitor_canadians_confidential_medical_records
I can’t drink too much alcohol or I have disrupted sleep. I went for 3 months without a drop and my sleep was amazing. Now I try to drink earlier in the day and drink water for a couple of hours before I sleep, dips not cups. Huge difference
I delete most of the daily emails I get-except yours. Thank you!
"What are these habits?
1). Go to bed and rise at the same times every day.
2). Get at least ten minutes of sunlight as soon as possible after Helios rises.
3). Only drink coffee in the morning hours, preferably before 9:00 a.m.
4). Each day, prioritize doing the nagging and annoying things on your list. If you leave them undone, your mind will race around them at 3:00 a.m.
5). Exercise daily, preferably in the morning.
6). Take a Vitamin D supplement, especially if you aren’t getting daily sunshine.
7). Cease looking at electronic, light-emitting devices after sunset.
8). Avoid heavy meals for dinner.
9). Avoid alcohol.
10). For at least a couple of hours before bedtime, do relaxing things like listening to classical music, playing an instrument, meditating, or reading an amusing book. Do not read or watch distressing things before bedtime."
Haha! After we fix covid you could try your hand at comedy. ;-)
Really, pick one and I'll see what I can do.
Dr Huberman on youtube has a lot of info. on sleep protocol. Also, Australians might be interested in Flinders University’s Sleep Health team programme : Australia's Sleep Revolution with Dr Michael Mosley is a new three-part TV series about the nation’s sleep. It premiered in March 2024 on SBS TV and SBS On Demand, and examines common sleep problems and their effects on people's lives and the impact nationally and beyond.
My issue is the 3 AM wake up, with my brain mulling over all the To-Do’s floating around in that space called my skull. That, and chronic sinus congestion that results in the pounding 3 AM headache that only an upright position and a cup of hot coffee applied to my forehead will cure. Sigh…This article is a good reminder about avoiding blue light before bed, a very bad habit I have not shaken nor have I given it an honest try. Maybe I’ll try again.
EXCELLENT reminders!
Great piece. Thank you. I'd drop the qualifier on the Vitamin D recommendation. Every adult should take at least 5,000 IU daily. That dosage will achieve a Vitamin D blood level of 40 nanograms per milliliter or more.
https://www.drberg.com/blog/vitamin-d3-5000-iu-benefits-health-benefits-risks-explained
Alcohol is the sleep killer.