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Randy Alvarez: But the five pillars. So, let’s go over those five pillars.
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: Randy, we’ve worked in empowerment symposiums and conferences at Walter Reed Medical Center, Fort Belvoir, USO, medical conferences in Seattle and Denver with empowering ourselves to the optimal health of our mind, body and spirit through the Five Pillars of Wellness. And I like to keep things simple, the first pillar is water.
Randy Alvarez: Okay.
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: Agua es vida in Spanish or Mni Wiconi in Lakota, water is life. And so, our body is 70% water and we need to drink half our weight in ounces every day. And good water, what I call bottled, filtered, or spring water. I don’t drink water that has chlorine in it, or fluoride in it. And those other heavy metals that are in our tap water are toxic to our body.
Randy Alvarez: Patients they go to see you, they’re drinking out of their taps. You get them off that. And also, because here in San Diego where we’re taping, everybody here is drinking a lot of water. Do you get patients that are admitting they just don’t really like to drink water?
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: I do. I don’t like the taste of the water, doc. And so, I said, well, let’s add a little lemon to it, a little lime to it, make it a tea. So, there’s ways to make it tastes better, but our body is 70% water, and we need to drink a lot of water, half our weight in ounces to feel healthy…
Randy Alvarez: Okay.
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: …of our brain, our gut, and proper functioning of our organ systems. And then the second pillar is the anti-inflammatory diet. I like Dr. Weil’s anti-inflammatory diet.
Randy Alvarez: Okay.
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: It’s simple. It’s a pyramid. And it makes sense to me, and explains that fruits and vegetables, organic, if possible, should be the mainstay of our diet—to avoid herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones. And so, you are what you eat. And you will feel healthier, you have more energy, and you’ll feel fully alive on an anti-inflammatory diet.
Randy Alvarez: We’ve all been told, eat your vegetables, right? So many people know what we have to do, or at least had heard about it, but they can’t get themselves to do it. So, you must run into this challenge yourself, right?
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: I do, but it’s a discipline. And when you feel better on the rainbows of fruits and vegetables that you’re eating, your body responds, you lose weight, you have more energy. Then it reinforces that behavior. And so, I like sweets just like the rest, like the next person. I love my dark chocolate. And so that’s my treat. But I used to eat a lot of vegetables. We have a nice organic garden we grow over here, and we can some beets, and tomatoes, and salsa. And so, food is medicine. And why not start there, treating that temple. Because our bodies are a temple of the holy spirit. We need to honor God with good food. And then the third pillar, Randy is exercise on most days, motion is a lotion. You got to get out there and move. This morning, I got up, had to go onto the beach for a couple reasons. One is to get some exercise, fresh air, and my prayers. And put my feet in the sand, but after a while, it was kind of cold out there with my feet in the sand. But, you know, Randy, there was still only one set of footprints. So, I knew that the good Lord was carrying me—carries me every day.
And be open to meditative exercise programs. I learned yoga when I was at Fort Belvoir. Yoga is powerful. It calms, it relaxes, it renews. It allows you to master the breathing and distresses you. Be open to Tai-Chi and Qigong. Just be open to other forms of meditative exercises.
Randy Alvarez: How much exercise? 20, 30 minutes a day?
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: I’d say 30 days on most days or 30 minutes on most days is what I recommend. And whether that’s a combination of yoga, of a meditative exercise, Tai Chi, or Qigong, or running. I like to run. I’m a runner, but I like to be flexible, and I don’t like to have pain. And so, the yoga, to me, has really revolutionized how I feel. I’m more flexible. I have less aches and pains. I sleep better. And it gives me that extra, that I’m looking for.
Randy Alvarez: Yeah. As a Christian, a lot of people are afraid of yoga. So, the spirituality part of yoga, do you get those kinds of questions?
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: I do. And as a Catholic, people challenged that as well. And I say, it deepens my faith. It allows me to draw closer to God. I don’t think God’s judging people, whether they’re doing yoga or Tai Chi or Qigong. He wants your attention. He wants you to have peace. And that gives me peace. I sleep better. I feel better. I think I I’m honoring God by doing yoga.
And the fourth pillar is sleep seven to nine hours on most days. And that can be a challenge for some people. But I say, when you get up in the morning, you’re preparing yourself for restful night’s sleep. And how do we do that? We go back to the pillars. And all this is on drgeorgej.com, my website.
Randy Alvarez: All right.
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: And give it a try and how do we, the…
Randy Alvarez: What if people can’t sleep? Cause we know we should have seven to nine hours.
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: Right.
Randy Alvarez: But what if you just can’t do?
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: Okay. And this is how I’m going to explain that Randy, we’re preparing ourselves for sleep. We have to drink enough water, so we feel good, our bodies are feeling good.
Randy Alvarez: Okay.
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: Eat the right foods. And so, the foods that we put in our gut, they go to our brain for the serotonin, the dopamine and norepinephrine. So, we have to eat right. Exercise helps distress us, helps us to sleep. And then not holding any grudges. No, no un-love.
Randy Alvarez: Which pillar is that?
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: So that’s the fifth and we’ll get to that, but it’s important that if you’re going to bed with a heavy heart and you need to reconcile with somebody, maybe that’s why you’re not sleeping.
Randy Alvarez: Okay.
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: And so, that’s why I’m saying it’s so important to work on those five pillars every day for the Buenos delude, which is the optimal health, good health of the lamenta, cuerpo, y espiritu, which is the mind, body, and spirit in Spanish. Had to throw a few of those words out, Randy, and just …
Randy Alvarez: You do some mission work?
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: I do.
Randy Alvarez: And you just get back or something?
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: I just got back from Guatemala. Five weeks studying Spanish and then the week of missionary work. Very fulfilling.
Randy Alvarez: So, letting go. So, you get a lot of people that are sick that go to you as a doctor, and they’ve had some trauma in their past. And many of them can’t let go. We were talking about this in the green room. You give them techniques to kind of forgive, let go. Right?
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: And that all comes down to first breathing. To learn to breathe in and breathe out. To calm the mind, relax the body, renew the spirit. That’s when we start to heal, the whole body starts to heal.
And so, when I say run into the arms of Jesus, that’s what I mean to do. Nurture, grow that divine exchange between you and God. It’s there if we want it. He will give us the peace in the present moment. He will encourage us on that path to be forgiving and to be more loving, we have to put forth that effort.
Randy Alvarez: So, combined with nutrition, I’m backing up to the nutrition. So combined with nutrition, and through meditation, prayer, and forgiveness, you see miracles in people’s lives?
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: I would say changes in people’s lives. The great physician, God produces the miracles. I am just an extension of him on this earth to help people on their path. I look at humanity a role. We all have the same role, three things. First is to love. Second is to love each other. And the third is to encourage each other on that path to salvation. And so that’s our purpose every day on life, for all of us. And so, whether I’m a physician, or whether I’m at a wellness hour, a host, or whatever our occupation is, it’s a choice, Randy, that we get each and every day. Do we want to be loving, forgiving, kind, caring and compassionate? Those are choices that we’re given each day. And so, our message and an empowerment is to make better choices and then we’ll feel better. And then, you know what that grace and the mercy that God gives us all, even flow more through our bodies. And we’ll be able to give that to other people.
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Dr. George J. Ceremuga: That’s the optimal health of our mind, body spirit through the Five Pillars of Wellness. And so, let’s reinforce those pillars. Again, this is the rock, the foundation of our whole prescription and keeping it simple, the five pillars.
Mni Wiconi, agua es vida, water is life. Three languages just to stress the importance of how powerful water is both physically and spiritually. And we know that biblically out of John 4:14, “But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst. But the water that I give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” And then John 3:5, “Amen. Amen. I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” So, both physical and spiritual importance of water. And on the video, we talked about that we want good water, bottle filter, spring water, to avoid the toxins that the chlorine, heavy metals, fluoride can harm our bodies. And there’s a spring water source, the website that you see there, that you can Google and there’s free places would you go get spring water. And so, I encourage you folks on that journey to drink half your weight in ounces because our bodies are 70% water.
So, let’s go onto the next pillar. The second pillar, food is medicine. Socrates taught us that. Folks, all diseases do start in the gut and it’s important to eat a plant-based diet. A plant-based diet is what will give us the nutrients for us to stay healthy. Because God said in Genesis, “I have given you every plant with seeds on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit with seeds, this will be your food.“
And in the book of Daniel, reinforces it. “Please test your servants for ten days and let us be given some vegetables to eat and drink water.” And so, I share with my rancher and farmer patients, all your animals need is good water and good grass and they’ll be healthy. And so, we need good water and a plant-based diet, and we’ll be healthy. Keep it simple folks. Keep the diet simple, whole foods, fruits and vegetables, organic, if possible, fruits and vegetables, plant a garden. So, we want to avoid pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, hormones, all toxic to our bodies, change our gut flora, mess up our microbiome, cause leaky gut, autoimmune disorders, and the list goes on. Right? So, plant your own garden, go to farmer’s market in your area. Otherwise, you’re eating the wrong foods. And then food is going to compromise.
And so, 75% of what I see in the clinic is chronic conditions are preventable through lifestyle changes and they’re reversible, your diabetes, your hypertension, your obesity, your autoimmune diseases. You fix the gut, you put the right foods in there, food is medicine, and all these go away. You don’t need all those medications. So, eat the rainbow of colors. Enjoy those foods. Avoid the process foods. If you go into the grocery store, stay on the outside, right? That’s where all the fruits and vegetables, the produce, the healthy things are things on the inside is all processed. Canned, preservative, hormones, antibiotics. For some of us, we got to watch gluten and dairy. People are sensitive to those. And so, those are some things that you can discuss with your provider, but just go to a plant-based diet, a lot of water, and that’s a great start. And your body then will start craving those foods.
So, what are you going to be here? What’d you choose health care or sick care? What do you want in your medicine cabinet or in your refrigerator? Right? We want the rainbow of colors, and you will feel fully alive, mind, body, spirit.
All right, so now, well, there’s, we’re going to go to the third pillar. Motion is a lotion. And as we talked about on the tape, 30 minutes on most days. Walking, running, swimming, biking, Tai Chi, yoga, motion is a lotion. And in Colossians it tells us, “Whatever you do work heartily as for the Lord and not for men.” So, we’re expected to work and labor. Those that don’t work shouldn’t eat, was another biblical quote.
So out of first Corinthians, “So you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body.” Again, it gets back to putting God first, glorifying God, our bodies are a temple of the holy spirit. So, let’s get out there and move. Okay. And there’s just some things that we’re going to show you. Some good empowerment type of things that we can do to feel fully alive, mind, body spirit.
We’re going to go through, in a couple of slides, some grounding exercises. And why? Because it helps us stay in the moment. It builds a balances or core muscles, especially our waistline, which is our core, the pelvis. Help strengthen the back as well. Better strength, the flexibility, vitality, range of motion, elasticity, and you know what? It reduces anxiety and insomnia. And many of my patients say, “When I moved doc, I feel better.” So, motion is a lotion.
And here are some of the quick energy tips we’re going to go over. And we talked about inhaling, love, exhaling gratitude, focusing on Jesus. We can breathe in. We can breathe out. We can do the 4, 7, 8. Breathe in over 4 (2, 3, 4), hold for 7 (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), and out for 8 (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). We can do some brain yoga, holding those ears, the ear lobes and inhaling love, exhaling gratitude, inhaling love, exhaling gratitude. And we switch it up. Sync those hemispheres, do it 10 times each day. Drink a big glass of water with raw and unfiltered apple cider vinegar with the mother, the squeeze a lemon or lime some raw honey.
We can just close our eyes and put our hands on our chest and do the inhale love, exhale gratitude. We can just recite some positive affirmations. “May I be happy. May I be humble. May I be peaceful. May I be loved.”
Go for a quick walk. At lunch yesterday, I was able to go sing “Talk to Jesus, My Guiding Light,” the song I sang to you. I was able to sing that twice on my walk. Got some fresh air. And important to give and receive three hugs a day. So, here’s one for me, a virtual hug for Khai and a virtual hug for Ayn. You know, my kind and talented team in the Philippines.
Saving this one here, now. I will say in Spanish, and we’ll do it in an English, head, shoulders, knees, and toes. And these are a lot of fun. And gets people’s smiles on their face. They get the giggle, and you have a good time. It’s a good team building exercise as well. Okay. So, head shoulders, knees, and toes, knees, and toes. Head, shoulders, knees, and toes, knees, and toes. Eyes, ears, nose, mouth. Head, shoulders, knees, and toes, knees, and toes.
Okay. Spanish lesson. Then Khai and Ayn, at some point in future live streams or videos, they’re going to teach us in Tagalog or Filipino. But Spanish, Cabeza, hombros, rodillas y pies, rodillas y pies. Cabeza, hombros, rodillas y pies, rodillas y pies. Ojos, oidos, nariz y boca.Cabeza, hombros, rodillas y pies, rodillas y pies.. All right.
So you know what? We don’t need our caffeine. We don’t need our energy drinks. We just get up and we get big glass of water, and we move, folks. So those are some grounding exercises as we transition into our next slide, is sleep seven to nine hours. And what did we talk to with Randy Alvarez on the Wellness Hour is sometimes it’s our spirit that’s keeping us up. We have to reconcile maybe with the Creator, with God or some others, people, or both. And it’s our spirit that is keeping us unsettled and restless. But if we live the Five Pillars of Wellness, that prepares us for sleep.
The water bays those neurotransmitters. It just prepares us to sleep. We feel better. The food gives us the nutrients to create those neurotransmitters. The exercise, the dopamine, and relaxing our body. And the love and forgiveness in our heart. So, we have peace. And so, we don’t go to bed with anything on our mind and we change the thoughts, the control of our brain. And our relationship with God and others, we’d get it out of our head and put it in our heart.
When our hearts are in the presence with the Lord, our hearts resting and in his heart, then we have that peace in the present moment. And Psalms 4:8 says, “In peace, I will lay down and sleep for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.” And Matthew 11, “Come to me all who labor and are heavy burden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me for, I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Remember there’s 7,000 promises in the Bible and God doesn’t go back on any of them.
And we have to reduce the caffeine. No caffeine after the lunch hour or doing any type of nicotine products, smoking, dip, that keeps us up. And then the other electronic devices, got to shut them off. Prepare yourself to sleep through prayer, meditation, reading, gentle stretches, yoga, Epsom salts bath, chamomile tea. There’s just so many great ways just to prepare yourself to sleep. And it works. It’s just that discipline. So that’s the fourth pillar, seven to nine hours of sleep. It’s important.
So, let’s go now into the fifth pillar of wellness and talk about loving and forgiving. And that’s imitating the life of Jesus and it’s not easy, but it is the rock, it is the foundation. That’s what we’re called to do. And the more we live the pillars, the more we reinforce all five of them, the better we’ll feel, the easier it is. Remember that heaven pose. One foot on the ground firm, the other one forward, arms up, gaze us through our hands to heaven and that we’re prepared to go to our heavenly home. That’s our eternal home. We’re only here for a blink of an eye on earth. Remember, and make it a good blink without any un-love or unforgiveness, because it just takes away from your blink. It’s yours and between you and God. Don’t let anybody take your blink away. “You shall love the Lord, your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, with your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ, forgave you.” That’s important.
Forgiveness is love in action. So, let’s just do it. And you know, the more we do it, the easier it gets, the more it gets reinforced, the better we feel, because we’re imitating Jesus. And so, when we’re walking with Jesus, talking to Jesus, we just feel his presence. And we know unconditional love is the greatest healer and it’s the most powerful. We nurture that divine exchange. Talk to Jesus, my guiding light.
We can use positive affirmations. Remember, we change worries to worship. God paints our battles and two blessings. And we can say, “May I be happy. May I be humble. May I be peaceful. And may I be loved. You know what? We let go and let God. Overthinking this negative thinking, just let it go. And that’s retraining the brain. That takes some discipline. And so, this is why we give you some of these tools.
Now we transition to our next slide and give you some more tools to use. Because we know we’re all responsible for our health and our choices. And we know that all life and healing come from the Great Spirit.
Reinforcing our guiding principles, that we know prayer is the best medicine. If you don’t know what to do, just pray and you’ll find that peace. Or just sit, listen, and let the Holy Spirit come into your heart. Knowing that God is the great physician, that all life and healing comes from him. And that we are responsible for our health and choices. Not the government, not your spouse, not your friends, but you and me. We’re responsible for our health and our choices.
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Dr. George J. Ceremuga: And what’s our new norm. Our new norm is to leave with love, as the power of love is God. All right. Who’s got our first question?
Ayn: I have a question, Dr. George. I really don’t drink water. What can I add to my water to increase my water intake?
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: That’s a great question. I’ve got my water here and I got lemon in it. I always have lemon in my water. I like water plain, I like it at room temperature, but I always put lemon, some apple cider vinegar a couple of times a day, some raw honey. Like sometimes I have some tea I can put in or some lime. And so, you can add some things that will change the taste and just give it a little flavor for you. And after a while, your body’s just to start craving that. And so, I would just say a lemon, lime, you can put fruit in there, people put blueberries and strawberries and other fruits you can put in a big water pitcher. And so that’ll flavor it up a little bit for you as well. Good question.
Ayn: How about, regarding insomnia. I’m taking pills for insomnia. What other non-medication options are available to help me fall asleep?
Dr. George J. Ceremuga: It’s a very common complaint, is I can’t sleep. But then just like I said, in the Wellness Hour video, then got to have the discipline to live the five pillars. I had a gentleman in the clinic just a couple of days ago. He was taking melatonin to help him sleep. Well, sometimes medicines do the exact opposite than they’re intended to do. Instead of making you sleep, they wire you up. It’s called a paradoxical effect. So, for him taking melatonin, isn’t a good thing, but he has an exercise in six weeks. He’s not drinking a lot of water. There’s nothing heavy on his heart, but he just wasn’t preparing himself to sleep. Remember the Five Pillars of Wellness, the water, eating the right foods, getting your exercise, and as long as you have peace in your heart, that’ll help. And so, I said, you can shut off the electronics, the TV, take an Epsom salts bath, drink some chamomile tea. Just do some breathing and relaxing exercises, read a book, say some prayers, all of those things work. They don’t work if we don’t do them. It’s a lot easier to grab a pill and the world will tell you more pills, potions, procedures, and vaccines will make you healthier. But 20 years of practice folks, that’s not working. The empowerment model, God’s free model of healthcare is where this whole Titanic is moving. And people will feel fully alive in mind, body, spirit. Another great question. Well, thank you for that one, Ayn.
Ayn: Thank you for the tips, Dr. George. I will definitely do that, and I learned a lot.
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What we need is empowerment and self-care. We have to change our whole mindset about our health and embrace lifestyle medicine. Here at DrGeorgeJ Holistic Health and Healing, we offer support and empowerment to everyone and everyone who chooses to live fully alive and empowered to optimal body, mind, and spirit health through the Creator Model of Healthcare’s 5 Pillars of Wellness.
We are excited to be a part of a change in the healthcare.
