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I know that negative ions are good for us, while positive ones are not good. But why? What's the theory (simplified) behind this, regarding the way they affect the human bodymind and health? And furthermore,
Do ions (especially the negative ones) have a life-span? If so, how long can they last?
Can they travel? Like, can wind carry them to a distance? If so, how far can they go?
In Reply to: Questions about ion, positive and negative posted by holist [5329.1399] on February 27, 2007 at 09:33:34:
Hi, Holist.
The very fact that you know enough to ask is a leg up.
Ions play a vital part of nearly all reactions that take place in our bodyminds. You would have to look at a textbook of biochemistry to begin to understand this and even that august specialty is only scratching the surface of how this works.
Our bodies need both kinds, in a certain dynamic balance and our nasal passages have already been identified as one of the automatic ways we balance our needs depending upon the milieu we are exposed to: by one or the other passage partially closing itself off when we need the other kind of ions.
There are breath science books in the library or at your health food store library that would explain this further.
Let us know what you learn. It has been so long since I have studied this that I forget the particulars. I only remember the basic mechanisms.
Walt
In Reply to: Re: Questions about ion, positive and negative Archive. posted by Walt Stoll [93.1889] on February 28, 2007 at 07:03:36:
Hi Walt,
If this is the case, then the yoga practice of alternate nostril breathing must be very beneficial in this regard?
In Reply to: Re: Questions about ion, positive and negative Archive. posted by Walt Stoll [93.1889] on February 28, 2007 at 07:03:36:
That's amazing stuff you wrote about the ions and human health, Walt. Whoa. The human bodymind in connection with nature is even more amazing than I thought...I'm making the subject of ions one of my new interests of inquiry.
Based on what you said, can I assume that those who truely enjoy nature (waterfalls, the ocean, deep forests, snowy mountains, thunderstorm, etc.) are in greater need of negative ions? I ask this because whenever I'm in such places, I inhale almost greedily, as if a starving person encounters good food; as if my body, mind, spirit, and soul are being fed at the same time. So, ions are probably also our soul's food--our soul food :)
In Reply to: Re: Questions about ion, positive and negative Archive. posted by buttin in and lovin it [7204.1351] on February 28, 2007 at 16:29:06:
Yes, Buttin.
However this is but a small part of this system which is automatically controlled via the hypothalamus.
Walt
In Reply to: Re: Questions about ion, positive and negative Archive. posted by holist [5329.1399] on February 28, 2007 at 21:28:29:
Yup, Holist.
Those are ALL places of high negative ions! Let us know what you learn in your journey.
Walt
In Reply to: Re: Questions about ion, positive and negative Archive. posted by Walt Stoll [93.1889] on March 01, 2007 at 08:39:24:
Thanks Walt.
So then are you saying, that if one practices SR properly, it will automatically control the management of nostrils and the correct intake of ions in balance?
In Reply to: Re: Questions about ion, positive and negative Archive. posted by Walt Stoll [93.1889] on March 01, 2007 at 08:43:26:
thanks Walt. Here is one of the articles I found on the net. Let me know what you think...
----------------------------
Ions and Consciousness
by
Jim Karnstedt
Your awareness is in the air...For centuries, yoga masters of the East have taught that breath is life, and by altering the intake of air, one could alter one's consciousness. The quality of the air we describe as prana or life energy. Now,Western science has coined a name for at least one aspect of that energy and called it "ions". More and more individuals are finding that these tiny electric charges have a lot to do with their awareness.
Fot the uninitiated, ions are charged particles in the air that are formed when enough energy acts upon a molecule, such as carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, or nitrogen to eject an electron. The displaced electron attaches itself to a nearby molecule, which then becomes a negative ion. It is the negative ion of oxygen that effects us most. Remember that feeling you have experienced near a waterfall, or high in the mountains? Those are two such places where thousands of negative ions occur. They create an effect on human biochemistry. Some of nature's other best known negative ion resources are air friction, lightning, falling water, earth's radioactivity. and even evergreens and ferns.
The normal ion count in fresh country air is 2,000-4,000 negative ions per cubic centimeter (cm3 is about the size of a sugar cube). At Yosemite falls, you will experience over 100,000 negative ions per cubic centimeter. On the other hand, the level is far below 100 per cubic centimeter on Los Angeles freeways during rush hour.
Research on ions began in 1950's with Dr. Albert Kreuger, professor emeritus of the University of California at Berkeley, and Dr. Felix Sulman, professor of pharmacology at the Hebrew University in Israel.
Dr Kreuger excited the scientific world when he discovered ions to be biologically active, stimulating the production of the powerful chemical serotonin of 5-HT. Serotonin is a very active neuro-hormone which causes profound neural, glandular, and digestive effects throughout the body. Tests show that positive ions increase production of 5-HT; negative ions decrease the hormone level.
Dr. Sulman corroborated Kreugers's findings while studying positive ion victims of the hot, dry Sharav winds in Jerusalem. he demonstrated three effects of positive ion excess: irritation and tension, exhaustion, and hyperthyroid response. Most of these conditions, along with symptoms of depression, anxiety, headaches, and low energy physical and mental functions, were shown to be alleviated or totally eliminated by increasing the negative ion count in the air.
Negative ions break down serotonin and thereby give one a clear, alert outlook with a higher awareness function. The primary reason for this is the increased speed with which the nerve impulses can travel along the synapses in the brain and the rest of the body.
"Negative Ions promote alpha brain waves and increase brain wave amplitude, which translates to a higher awareness level."
The metabolism is enhanced to create better utiliztion of nutrients from our foods and vitamins, while our brain's intuitive, nonlinear activities flow more smoothly.
Negative ions promote alpha brainwaves and increase brainwave amplitude, which translates to a higher awareness level. Those ion-induced alpha waves spread from the occipital areas to the parietal and temporal and even reach the frontal lobes, spreading evenly across the right and left brain hemispheres. All of this creates an overall clear and calming effect, benefiting meditation and concentration.
While ionization of the air is mandatory in many European and Russian hospitals and workplaces, it has only recently come to light in our country with the growing problems to toxic air in our urban environments.
"The negative ion count per cubic centimeter at Yosemite Falls is over 100,000. On the other hand the count is far below 100 on the Los Angeles Freeways..."
Jan Stolwijk, of the World Health Organization, stated that, "there is probably more damage done to human health by indoor air pollution than by outdoor pollution." Most people spend 70% to 80% of their time indoors!
The late William Radley, a Bay Area environmental health expert, coined the term "orthomolecular architecture" opening up a whole new area for designers and architects to consider, namely, the choice of building materials that will not release toxic fumes such as formaldehyde and hydrocarbons.
It may of been dificult to be an urban mystic in the past, but now, we can look forward to environmental solutions that will aid us in maintaining a more conscious and healthful life. Ionization is one of our first major steps.
In Reply to: Re: Questions about ion, positive and negative Archive. posted by buttin [1035.1351] on March 01, 2007 at 12:24:04:
Yes, Buttin, unless there is something going on that is causing nasal congestion.
Walt
In Reply to: Ions and Consciousness posted by holist [5329.1399] on March 01, 2007 at 20:33:41:
Thanks, Holist.
Good article!
I just cannot resist saying though: It is a shame how our Western Arrogance (mainly fostered by the allopathic monopoly) has delayed this information to our culture for at least 200 years while we treated the symptoms of this imbalance with increasingly toxic, and increasingly expensive, pharmaceuticals.
I would appreciate your continuing sharing stuff like this with the BB.
Namaste`
Walt
In Reply to: Re: Ions and Consciousness Archive. in energy medicine. posted by Walt Stoll [93.1889] on March 02, 2007 at 08:16:58:
SP!
In Reply to: Re: Questions about ion, positive and negative Archive. posted by Walt Stoll [93.1889] on March 02, 2007 at 07:38:58:
Thanks Walt.
Wow, that SR is so powerful!
In Reply to: Re: Ions and Consciousness Archive. in energy medicine. posted by Walt Stoll [93.1889] on March 02, 2007 at 08:16:58:
Ions Can Do Strange Things To You
by Robert O'Brian
It was RCA's Dr. Hansell who, in 1932, stumbled upon the behavioral effects of artificially generated air ions.
He noticed a startling swing in the moods of a fellow RCA scientist who worked beside an electrostatic generator.
• Some days the scientist finished work alert and in bubbling good spirits.
• On other days he was rude, ill-tempered, depressed.
Why? Dr. Hansell investigated and found that the scientist was happy when the ion generator was adjusted to produce negative ions, morose when it was producing positive ions. A few months later, reports of ionization research in Europe confirmed the strange experience.
A few years ago atmospheric ions became suddenly important to military, researchers in environmental medicine. How would they affect men locked in submarines? In space ships? What were the possibilities of ions therapy? Research programs multiplied, with fantastic results.
One sweltering day in Philadelphia a man sat before a small metal box resting atop a hospital file cabinet. It was plugged into an ordinary wall socket. A doctor flipped a switch. Inside the box a small fan whirred; the box hummed distantly, like a high-tension wire, and gave off a faint, sweetish odor. Soon the man felt alert, magical, refreshed, as though he had been taking deep gulps of sparkling October air. The doctor turned the machine off, switched on another that looked just like it. The air grew quickly stale. The man's head felt stuffy. His eyes smarted. His head began to ache. He felt vaguely depressed and tired.
With this simple experiment, the scientist, Dr. Igho H. Kornblueh, of the American institute of Medical Climatology, demonstrated the effect that atmospheric ions can have on human beings. The first machine generated negative ions; the second positive ions.
The air around us is filled with these electrically charged particles. They are generated in invisible billions by cosmic rays, radioactive elements in the soil, ultraviolet radiation, storms, waterfall, winds, the friction of blowing sand or dust. Every time we draw a breath they fill our lungs and are carried by the blood to our body cells. They appear to have a lot to do with such varied things as our moods, why cattle grow skittish before a storm, why rheumatic joints "tingle" when the barometer falls, and how ants know in advance that it's going to rain, in time to block their tunnels.
Falling barometric pressure and hot, dry, seasonal winds, such as the Alpine Fohn and the Rocky Mountain Chinook, for example, pack the air with an excess of positive ions. Not everyone is affected; healthy young people swiftly adapt to the change. But countless others are distressed. The aged come down with respiratory complaints, aching joints; asthma sufferers wheeze and gasp; children grow cranky and perverse; crime and suicide rates climb.
On the other hand, a preponderance of negative ions spices the air with exhilarating freshness. We feel on top of the world.
Dr. C. W. Hansell, research fellow at RCA Laboratories and an international authority on ionization, illustrates the effect with a story about his ten-year-old daughter. "We were outside, watching the approach of a thunderstorm. I knew that clouds of negative ions were filling the air. Suddenly my daughter began to dance across the grass, a radiant look in her face. She leaped up on a low boulder, threw her arms wide to the dark sky, and cried. 'Oh, I feel wonderful!'"
Negative ions "cure" nothing that we know of, at most afford relief only so long as one inhales them. Many doctors doubt their therapeutic effects. But there is a growing army of people who swear by them.
At the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate Hospital and at Northeastern and Frankford hospitals in Philadelphia, Dr. Kornblueh and his associates have administered negative-ion treatments to hundreds of patients suffering from hay fever or bronchial asthma. Of the total, 63 percent have experienced partial to total relief. "They come in sneezing, eyes watering, noses itching, worn out from lack of sleep, so miserable they can hardly walk," one doctor told me. "Fifteen minutes in front of the negative-ion machine and they feel so much better they don't want to leave."
In Philadelphia Dr. Kornblueh studied brain-wave patterns and found evidence that negative ions tranquilized persons in severe pain. In one dramatic test he held a negative ionizer to the nose and mouth of a factory worker who had been rushed to Northeastern Hospital with second-degree steam burns on his back and legs. In minutes the pain was gone. Morphine, customarily administered in such cases, was never necessary.
Today all burn cases at Northeastern are immediately put in a windowless, ion conditioned room. In ten minutes, usually, the pain has gone. Patients are left in the room for 30 minutes. The treatment is repeated three times every 24 hours. In 85 percents of the cases no pain-deadening narcotics are needed. Says Northeastern's Dr. Robert McGowan, "Negative ions make burns dry out faster, heal faster and with less scarring. They also reduce the need for skin-grafting. They make the patient more optimistic. He sleeps better."
Encouraged by this success in burn therapy, Dr. Kornblueh, Dr. J. R. Minehart, Northeastern's chief surgeon, and his associate Dr. T. A. David boldly tried negative ions in relief of deep, postoperative pain. During an eight month test period they exposed 138 patients to negative ions on the first and second days after surgery. Dr. Kornblueh has just announced the results at a London congress of bioclimatologists. In 79 cases 57 percent of the total negative ions eliminated or drastically reduced pain. "At first," says Dr. Minehart, "I thought it was voodoo. Now I'm convinced that it's real and revolutionary."
Experiments by Dr. Albert P. Krueger and Dr. Richard F. Smith at the University of California have shown how ionization affects those sensitive to airborne allergens. Our bronchial tubes and trachea, or windpipe, are lined with tiny filaments called cilia. The cilia normally maintain a whip like motion of about 900 beats a minute. Together with mucus, they keep our air passages free of dust and pollen. Krueger and Smith exposed tracheal tissue to negative ions, found that the ciliary beat was speeded up 1200 a minute and that mucus flow was increased. Doses of positive ions produced the opposite effect: ciliary beat slowed to 600 a minute or less; the flow of mucus dropped.
In experiments that may prove important in cancer research. Drs. Krueger and Smith also discovered that cigarette smoke slows down the cilia and impairs their ability to clear foreign, and possibly carcinogenic (cancer-inducing), substances from the lungs. Positive ions, administered along with cigarette smoke, lowered the ciliary beat as before, but from three to ten time faster than in normal air.
Negative ions however, counteracted the effects of the smoke. Observed Dr. Krueger, "The agent in cigarette smoke that slows down the ciliary beat is not known. Whatever it may be, its action is effectively neutralized by negative ions, which raise the ciliary beat as well in a heavy atmosphere of cigarette smoke as they do in fresh air."
How do ions trip off our moods? Most authorities agree that ions act on our capacity to absorb and utilize oxygen. Negative ions in the blood stream accelerate the delivery of oxygen to our cells and tissues, frequently giving us the same euphoric jolt that we get from a few whiffs of straight oxygen. Positive ions slow down the delivery of oxygen, producing symptoms markedly like those in anoxia, or oxygen starvation. Researchers also believe that negative ions may stimulate the reticuloendothelial system; a group of defense cells in our bodies which marshal our resistance to disease.
Dr. Krueger predicts that we shall some day regulate the ion level indoors much as we now regulate temperature and humidity. Ironically, today's air-conditioned buildings, trains and planes frequently become supercharged with harmful positive ions because the metal blowers, filters and ducts of air-conditioning systems strip the air of negative ions before it reaches its destination. Says RCA's Dr. Hansell, "This explains why so many people in air conditioned spots feel depressed and have an urge to throw open a window."
Air conditioner manufacturers are designing new systems that increase negative ionization. The American Broadcasting Co. will equip its new 30 story New York City headquarters with ion control. Two national concerns, Philco and Emerson Electric, already have ion control air conditioning systems on the market. RCA, Westinghouse, General Electric and Carrier Corp. have similar products under study or development.
We still have much to learn about atmospheric ions . But researches believe that these magic bits of electricity, under artificial control, will soon be helping millions to healthier, happier, more productive lives.
-----------------------------------
-----------------------------------
Walt, I find in this article the following words especially touching--about the production of ions: “they are generated in invisible billions by cosmic rays, radioactive elements in the soil, ultraviolet radiation, storms, waterfall, winds, the friction of blowing sand or dust…” Right now these words seem to be 3 dimentional and magically charged...Cosmic rays! The sun! Radioactive elements in the soil, and ultraviolet radiation! Whoa! We are soooooo intimately connected with the whole cosmos, the sun, and all the activities of the earth all the time, eternally! Now I feel such a strong connection with everything and all things in the universe, and a strong feeling that each of us, as a living being, is so blessed by being and existing on this planet,in the universe, and that the universe is loving us unconditionally, all the time, and all we need to do is just to receive this loving/nourishing energy by simply BEING... Aren't we lucky or what? :) I also have the feeling that all this is quite simple and natural, and that it'd be actually very unnatural and very strange NOT to experience this cosmic consciousness and have cosmic awareness... Ah, Walt, I’m pretty sure you must have experienced this, and must have received this cosmic love (judging from what you do here) so you might know what I’m talking about, even though probably few others do… :)
In Reply to: Walt, I'm glad you like this stuff... so here are some more food for the soul :) posted by holist [5329.1399] on March 02, 2007 at 11:58:33:
Thanks, Holist.
Those professionals in the know have already said that the 21st century will be the century of electromagnetic medicine just as the 20th was the century of pharmaceutical medicine.
Walt
In Reply to: Walt, I'm glad you like this stuff... so here are some more food for the soul :) posted by holist [5329.1399] on March 02, 2007 at 11:58:33:
Holist, thank you so much for posting these absolutely fascinating articles. I had read about positive and negative ions and have noticed their influence on my own health and state of mind and body.
Your comments at the end here are so touching and true. I can't agree more.
Love your posts. Keep posting. I'll be looking forward to reading anything else you might post.
Thank you,
Naya
In Reply to: --you like this stuff... so here are some more food for the soul :) Archive. posted by Walt Stoll [93.1889] on March 03, 2007 at 11:24:42:
Those professionals may be right--only time will tell. My concern is that by looking back at the 20th century of pharmaceutical medicine--a rather gloomy picture of human health issues, can we expect the 21st century of electromagnetic medicine to be more successful? The problem is not in the tool per se, but in the lack of human experience in these tools in particular, as well as in the lack of foresight by humans in general. As shown in human history.
These areas of research is certainly fascinating, especially the connections among many different fields of research, such as physics, biology, chemistry, cosmology, medicine, etc. etc. But the deeper you go, the more complex it becomes, and still there is much, much more (actually infinite) to know before science can be sure of something. Until then, people will just continue playing the role of guinne pigs or lab rats...as we did in the 20th century.
As I'm digging into the ion issue and related issues(and I admit this is not even scraching the surface yet), I find that all this is almost invariably related to particle physics, which humans know very little of. And the total # of the people who do understand that very little, is, shall we say, very very few (probably less than 10 altogether, including the dead ones like Feynman). With such a mysteriously fascinating universe around us, and such a vast amount of knowledge for us to know, yet with us puny lillte minds that we have to comprehend it, I'm not sure if humans are ready for any new advancement on a mass scale...
If we look back in history, or even look at the current human condition, people don't really know what they are doing, do they? I mean, look at all the movers and shakers of the world, such as the U.S., China, the Middle East, Africa, South America--in fact, the whole globe, do you get the impression that people (from the top to the bottom, from the president to the doctors to the scientists to the cooks and the masses) actually know what they are doing? Where their country is going? Where the world is going?
Electromagnetism is a powerful force from nature. But do we have to harness it and control it? Can't we just appreciate this natural force and simply receive it from nature (like babies receiving their mother's milk) instead of trying to control it and using it for other purposes (imagine babies trying to sell their mother's milk, or changing it into something else for profit, or worse yet, making it into a weapon)? Humans in nature is very much like babies on mother's breast. When they try to control nature, they mess things up, and problems arise, which lead to endless problems...
As for me, well, I'd much prefer to sit by my waterfall and simply enjoy BEING there :)
In Reply to: Re: Walt, I'm glad you like this stuff... so here are some more food for the soul :) posted by Naya [120.14] on March 03, 2007 at 18:38:01:
Thanks Naya. Here are some interesting info--scary picture of anywhere "civilized," like cities and even worse, buildings:
Concentration of Negative Ions in Different Environments
Environment Concentration *
Waterfalls 95,000 ¨C 450,000
Mountains, seashores, breezy forest 50,000 ¨C 100,000
Breezy country meadow 5,000 ¨C 50,000
Cities 100 ¨C 2000
Rooms and offices 40 ¨C 100
Rooms with Air Conditioner 0 ¨C 20
*Approximate Concentration of Negative Ions per cubic centimeter (cc3)
----------------------------
And, here is another article about ions...
-----------------------------
Benefits of Negative Ions
- Water and Air
By John Heinerman, Ph.D.
Foreword by Lendon Smith, M.D.
Section One: Vitamins of the Air [ Top ]
Approximately half-a-century ago, a certain woman living in a large, crowded city contracted tuberculosis. Doctors did what they could for her without any avail. They gave her a morbid prognosis of inevitable death and she was consigned to a gloomy existence without any hope or reason to live.
Deciding that she would at least die in more pleasant surroundings, she moved from the big city to a humble log cabin in a pine forest somewhere in the State of Maine. For an entire Winter she stayed there, busying herself with things that kept her mind happy and occupied.
By next Spring she noticed a peculiar thing about her respiratory state of health. Virtually all of her symptoms of her former disease had abated. Going to several medical doctors and a local hospital for various checkups, she was pronounced free of TB. Her recovery was later chronicled in a national best-seller entitled, "I Lived in the Woods".
It wasn't anything in her diet that promoted such a remarkable turnaround in her incurable disorder. Rather it was what she breathed every few seconds that accomplished the most good for her.
In a past issue of Soviet Life magazine (April 1969, p. 43), a leading Russian biologist, Nikolai Kholodkovsky made the following highly interesting observations: "The air we breathe in the woods or in gardens contains vitamins given off by plants." His studies had shown that in each cubic meter of air there are several milligrams of volatile substances, including vitamins.
Two of the nutrients emitted from the tree bark and needles of fragrant pine odoe, he discovered, were vitamin C and a form of bioflavonoid called proanthocyanidins. Because bioflavonoids and ascorbic acid often appear in combination with each other in plants, they form powerful antioxidant effects.
The woman who previously suffered from TB obviously benefited from the forest air charged with vitamin C, which the research of twice Nobel Prize winner Dr. Linus Pauling has shown to be outstanding for fighting viral infections of any kind. But the bioflavonoid with it, the proanthycyanidins, also deserves considerable merit for the prevention and treatment of many infectious diseases. This vital nutrient is better known by its trademark name of Pycnogenol, based on the clinical research of Dr. Jack Masquelier of the University of Bordeaux in France, who discovered it in the bark of the French maritime pine tree which grows in the Les Landes pine forest along the Atlantic coast of southern France.
Both of the powerful antioxidants, which Kholodkovsky first reported on over two decades ago, are extremely useful for controlling the deadly activity of a group of compounds within the body called free radicals. These scavenger molecules are lacking an electron and roam through the body at random, robbing normal molecules of their electrons. In doing so, free radicals create a great deal of havoc and mischief with the body's delicately structured biochemistry. What antioxidants do is to curb or check this destructive action.
Thus, it was that this woman's particular health condition, which the doctors had completely given up hope of ever curing, was unwittingly reversed by her geographical relocation into another environment totally charged with nutrients in the air. It was, in a very real sense, these "vitamins of the air," which had healed her lungs of this ravaging disease.
All too often we're inclined to think of vitamins as only coming from food or health food supplements. But the very definition of the word "vitamin" suggests otherwise. "Vitamin" is really a composite of two separate words with different meanings to them: but when linked together surely do present a compelling argument for considering the air we breathe in a nutritional light.
Now "vita" comes from the Latin word for "life". And an "amine" is defined by dictionary experts as "any of various compounds derived from ammonia by replacement of hydrogen by one or more univalent hydrocarbon radicals." Which is a fancy way of saying in cruder terminology that a vitamin is essentially a "life gas" or for our purposes here, "life air". Thus, it would be linguistically correct to assert that a vitamin is, indeed, an "air nutrient" as given by the formula definition above.
Section Two: Inhaling Minerals For Health [ Top ]
A very popular self-help manual by James F. Balch, M.D. and his wife Phyllis has become a favorite of the health food industry within the last several years because of its total emphasis on food supplement consumption as a ready Prescription for Nutritional Healing (the title of their book). On page 17 they identify macro (bulk) and micro (trace) minerals as coming from soil, plant foods, meat, and, of course, mineral supplements in tablet, capsule, liquid, and powder forms. But nothing is ever said by them or any other nutritionists concerning minerals from the air.
You don't need a college education to figure out that if we aren't supplied with hydrogen and oxygen in sufficient quantities, we're going to die within a matter of minutes. These two trace elements are considered to be micro minerals without which the body could not function and would readily perish in no time at all.
Beyond them, however, are other minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, phosphorus, and zinc, which the body depends upon for the normal maintenance of good health. Because of massive advertising by the health food industry and the single-mindedness of scientific opinion, consumers are led to believe that the best source for minerals is food and food supplements. Very little is ever said about water, let alone air, as being potential contributors of minerals.
This realization first dawned upon me in the early summer of 1979 when I accompanied a delegation of scientists and lay people to the Soviet Union for several weeks. Our trip was arranged for by the Citizen Exchange Corps out of New York City and Boston and the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow. A colleague and friend of mine who accompanied me on this historic trip was the late Professor Emeritus Walter McCain of the University of Connecticut at Storrs. Because he could speak Russian fluently, I had opportunities available to me that many of the others in our group didn't have to do some investigative research in health institutes we visited along the way.
Dr. McCain and I spent an afternoon on Monday, June 4th by ourselves touring the "Central Scientific Research Institute of Health Resorts and Physical Therapy" located on Kalinin Avenue in Moscow. Dr McCain knew the directors in the institute from a previous visit - - Drs, Victor G. Yasnogorodsky and Dr, Vasily M. Bogoljubov.
While giving us a personal tour of this large facility, we became very intrigued by a room with a sign on the door reading "Climate Therapy" in Russian. Inside we were shown rather curiously engineered devices designed to mimic different types of air quality for specific ailments. For instance, tuberculosis sufferers were recommended a machine simulating "mountain air"; asthma sufferers were prescribed a machine generating warm, dry, desert-like air; while emphysema patients and those experiencing chronic lung inflammation were put on a machine yielding an air reminiscent of a sea coast.
They told us that the success of these machines and the airs they simulated from different environments in nature, was due largely to the mineral ions found in each of them. I, of course, had always been familiar with air ions in general, and knew from published scientific research that positive ions (posions) could make a person feel crummy and sick, while negative ions (negions) stimulated vibrant health and left you with an exhilarated feeling. But this was the first time I had ever heard them referred to as "mineral" ions.
My introduction to this radically different concept of air minerals was something of a new experience for me. And, just like the Wonderland into which Alice tumbled behind the Looking Glass, I became more "curiouser and curiouser" as our trip continued.
The real clincher, though for vitamins and minerals from the air. came to a head in the oil producing city of Baku beside the Caspian Sea, in the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaidjan (now a newly self-declared nation of its own). There we had ample opportunity to learn a great deal more about the benefits of nutritional air at the Zone Z'drovia, or Zone of Health.
On Friday morning, June 9th, our group visited this remarkable medical clinic situated just inside an ancient stone wall surrounding the oldest part of the city. Here we discovered to our utter delight and astonishment, a wide range of natural therapies available for a host of illnesses. Some of those therapies, as I look back on that time through the pages of my well-kept journals, were a little on the exotic side.
Take phytotherapy, in which young and old alike with problems ranging from hypertension and chronic bronchitis to fatigue disorders and heart disease spent an average of ten minutes or so sniffing the fragrances of laurel, geranium, or rosemary (the fragrance of the geranium, we were told, is especially good for "acute headache, neuroses, high blood pressure and insomnia"). And, if that sounds a little bizarre, consider this: those plants were being "fertilized" with mineral water, glucose and even drugs - - including common aspirin.
This course of treatment, I learned, differs from the popular European and American aromatherapy in one important respect. The former utilizes the whole living plant, while the latter uses just the natural aromatic essence extracted from it. The concept is basically the same as whether you derive your essential nutrients from food or from food supplements. Common sense dictates that the first is always better for you than the second, because the nutrition you're ingesting is complete and alive.
We were informed by Dr. Abdul Kuschev, the clinic's Director of Medical Science, that the ultimate benefit to their version of phytotherapy lay in the fact that the patient obtained his or her necessary minerals from the invisible air ions emitted from different garden herbs. These, he stated through an interpreter, were what made patients feel better by solving their problems nutritionally - - through nutrition from the air.
These things brought me full circle a couple of years later while watching the "Tom Snyder Show" on television in my home on December 9th, 1981 at 12:25 a.m. His guest was an exceedingly thin fellow named Wiley Brooks (then age 48) from Boulder, Colorado. Mr. Brooks was exceptionally unusual in that he claimed to obtain all of his nourishment from just two things - - namely air and water. He styled himself a "breathairian" who lived by breathing his "food" instead of eating it in the conventional way the rest of us do.
He said that the key to understanding his off-the-wall philosophy was found in Genesis 2:7, which he quoted from memory: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
When asked what the difference was between those in self-imposed starvation and himself, he continued: "The difference between me and hunger strikers [imprisoned members of the terrorist organization the Irish Republican Army] in Belfast is that they quit eating to die, while I quit eating to live better."
He added: "I've discovered by breathing pure mountain air in the high Colorado Rockies that I'm able to obtain just about all of the nutrients my body could ever want; the water I drink to keep myself from dehydrating, supplies the rest." He joked by saying that the hardest problem he now faced with this new change of healthful lifestyle was when his old friends and acquaintances invited him out to dinner. "I'll usually tell them, "you go ahead and eat and I'll just step outside for my snack - - a few breaths of fresh air!"
However ridiculous or extreme this may seem to some readers, it does underscore a significant truth: air contains many of the vitamins and minerals our bodies need in trace amounts in the form of very minute, beneficially charged molecules known as negions. This is the food we inhale from air near the ocean, in the tops of the mountains, by a waterfall, after a good rain and thunderstorm, and in our bathroom showers. This is the nourishment which will help us to retain youthful vitality and enjoy longer life.
In Reply to: Re: Walt, I'm glad you like this stuff... so here are some more food for the soul :) posted by holist [5329.1399] on March 03, 2007 at 22:37:51:
Very interesting, but not at all surprising, the statistics and the article. In the 19th century, people with consumption, TB, used to be sent to the mountains or to spas, I believe, to take the air and water cures. Unfortunately, this was not enough for a lot of people.
Your stats on negative ion concentration certainly confirm my obsessions with waterfalls and oceans. I lived in Ithaca, N.Y. for six years while studying at Cornell. It is located on the Finger Lakes, formeraly a glacial zone. The multitude of waterfalls and gorges, plus beautiful woods make that whole area, especially Ithaca, a dreamplace to live, although not so great in the winter. It always amazed me how fiercely, almost maniacally, nostalgic Cornell alumni were about the place. Foreign students who had studied there used to come back to visit often. My brother, who came to visit me there, ended up staying there for years. I think it must be the combination of the waterfalls and the woods. It's magical.
I wanted to ask what you might think of living near an ocean whose coastline is quite polluted. I have been living in So. Ca. for about eight years now and was very disappointed to find that the shorelines and beaches are always polluted. I wonder what the balance is between the negative ions and the pollution. I live in the L.A./Long Beach port area which has just made the news as being one of the most polluted areas in the country. I think I picked the wrong coastal area. Many times when I go down to the beach, it smells just ghastly - so disheartening.
I also have noticed that if I spend too much time indoors, I feel suffocated and much better if I am out for a while. So again, the stats don't lie.
Fascinating stuff. I read the other article as well. Thanks again for posting.
Naya
In Reply to: Re: Walt, I'm glad you like this stuff... so here are some more food for the soul :) posted by Naya [120.14] on March 03, 2007 at 23:09:18:
Thanks Naya.
Interesting point about Cornell. I wonder if anyone has tried to count the neg-ion content in the air there. How far is the campus from the waterfall?
About the californian coasts, I like the northern part much better. True that the ocean water is too cold to swim in even in summer, but the bigger environment is so much cleaner...more trees, more nature, plus the redwoods :) From the way my bodymind feels along the CA coast, I dare say the neg-ion content in N. CA is much, much higher than S.CA.
L.A. is definitely not my type of place.
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