Mary Gilroy of Foxfire,
Moore County, N.C., offered free health advice to a group gathered at Grace
Church in Southern Pines, N.C., on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013, for her "Health Is Simple" ongoing seminar.
“If you want real
healthcare, you’re going to have to take responsibility,” said Mary, a Grace
Church member and a tall, thin former Lt. Commander who served 10 years in the
Navy.
She grew up on a farm in
the Madison, Wisconsin, area, where her father was an attorney. She has two
older brothers and a younger sister. She is part owner of Raider Tactical LLC
and also coaches weight loss and natural health as a way of sharing her passion
for health with others. Her interest in health, nutrition and weight loss
began in college.
“As a freshman in college I
was 40 pounds heavier than I am today,” Mary said. “I began working out and
started losing weight. Then I had to learn how to maintain my weight loss
and that eventually led me into natural health and nutrition. Today, there is
so much health and nutrition information available that is seems overwhelming
to try and figure out what to do. I like to keep it simple and give people
practical ways they can improve their health.”
Mary plans to offer
once-a-month (each second Thursday at 7:00 p.m. in Room 104) health seminars at
Grace Church.
She is married to T.J.
Gilroy, author of “The Holy Hand Grenade,” a book about “How to get what you
really want, really!” (Find his blog at www.thomasjgilroy.com.) A graduate of the
University of Virginia, T.J. spent 12 years in the U.S. Marine Corps and served
as a Cobra Helicopter pilot. He works as vice president of sales for Quantico
Tactical in Aberdeen, N.C. He and Mary lead “Chosen for Greatness,” a “small
group” about finding your gift and passion. The group meets at Grace Church.
T.J. also leads “The Holy Spirit in You,” a small group meeting at the church.
Mary used a power-point presentation
to share information on physical health and some mental and spiritual health
advice. She began her presentation with a photograph of a lion’s head and this
quote by St. Augustine projected onto her screen: “The truth is like a lion.
You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself.”
Heath Care Costs
As Mary began her seminar, "Health Is Simple," she asked, asked the Grace Church group
where the U.S. ranks in life expectancy. A few attendees made guesses.
“Fifty –third,” she said. “It used to be 46th. Right above us is
Taiwan.”
She noted that the U.S. now averages $8,000 per person per year
for health care costs and that the average U.S. doctor – probably contrary to
popular thinking – earns only $130,000 each year. The average U.S. doctor is
finally out of debt at age 52, she said.
“How many pounds of sugar per year do we eat [in the U.S.]?” she
asked.
More guesses.
“One hundred and thirty pounds per year,” she said. (That’s the
present average for each U.S. citizen, and some writers list higher estimates
than 130 pounds.)
She said each person averages taking in 10-15 pounds of salt each
year and perhaps 10 pounds total of chemicals, synthetic vitamins, food
coloring, etc.
She quoted Hippocrates: “Let your food be your medicine and your
medicine be your food.”
Mary’s father died at age 54 when she was 15 years old.
“He had his first heart attack at 35,” she said.
Health and Fear
She said one should check his motive for wanting health. Is that
motive “fear”? The Bible (NASB) offers comments on “fear”:
“For what I fear comes upon
me, and what I dread befalls me” (Job 3:25).
“For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and
love and discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).
“So that we confidently say, ‘The
Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews
13:6).
“There
is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves
punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love” (1 John 4:18).
“There’s
a piece of it [lack of fear] that comes by trusting that God loves you,” Mary
said. “You’re not truing to get something from God. You’re trying to receive
what God has done for you.”
We
are made up of basically three dimensions: spirit, soul (mind, will and
emotions equal “psyche”) and body (involving the senses: sight, taste, touch, smell
and hearing).
A
Christian has his soul “redeemed” and changed, but his soul and body are not
redeemed, yet, Mary noted.
Noting
that “eating healthy foods” may “cost more,” she referred to Philippians 4:19: “And my God will supply all your
needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
“You’ve
got to believe that God wants you to have what you need to have [in order] to
do what you need to do,” she said.
She
said America’s health care system is already broken and that “new policies will
pour more people into what’s broken.”
She
quoted Proverbs 23:7 – “For as he thinks within himself, so he is. . . .” – and recommended “As
a Man Thinketh,” a book by James Allen.
“Think
what God thinks,” Mary said. “The Devil’s primary purpose in life is to pull
you off the Word.”
She
referred to 3 John 1:2: “ Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in
good health, just as your soul prospers.”
“You
do that by confessing God’s word,” Mary said. “Get your mind in the Word.”
Emotions
She
asked if attendees remembered when they used to go the doctor and he didn’t
seem rushed.
“They
don’t have time,” she said. “[Now] they treat symptoms.”
“But
the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full
of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy” (James 3:17).
“My
people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. . . .” (Hosea 4:6).
“Wisdom
illuminates knowledge,” Mary said.
She
recommended Dr. Don Colbert’s book titled “Deadly Emotions,” which states that
thoughts show up in our bodies.
“He
[Colbert] says 85 percent of his patients’ diseases are directly related to
stress and emotions,” Mary stated.
The
IRS and “the law of unintended consequences”
Car
insurance is designed to cover “wrecks” and private health insurance (owned by
individuals who paid directly to insurance companies) was designed to cover “catastrophic”
health developments, Mary said. But the U.S. government, wanting to control
inflation during after World War II, told employers that employers couldn’t
offer monetary raises to employees. But the government let employers offer
health benefits and let employees “write off” those benefits from their federal
taxes. After World War II, that plan stayed intact. That’s how health insurance
became connected to jobs.
From
Wikipedia: “Employer-sponsored health
insurance plans dramatically expanded as a direct result of wage controls
imposed by the federal government during World War II. The labor
market was tight because of the increased demand for goods and decreased supply
of workers during the war. Federally imposed wage and price controls prohibited
manufacturers and other employers from raising wages enough to attract workers.
When the War Labor Board
declared that fringe benefits,
such as sick leave and health insurance, did not count as wages for the purpose
of wage controls, employers responded with significantly increased offers of
fringe benefits, especially health care coverage, to attract workers.”
Mary said her husband, T.J.,
says you follow the money to get to the root of many problems.
“There’s a time when a person’s
true character come out: when there’s not enough money on the table – and when
there’s too much,” T.J. Gilroy says.
Blood Regeneration
Mary said an 1828 U.S. dictionary
defined “pharma” (as in pharmacology) as “witchcraft.”
She recommended “Live Blood
Microscopy,” a process that involves looking at a person’s blood cells
magnified 1,000 times during an one-half hour appointment.
“Every 90 days we regenerate
[all] red blood cells,” she said.
Germs versus pH
She talked about the “Feud in
France”: Louis Pasteur’s theory about germs versus Antoine Bechamp’s theory.
From Wikipedia: Louis Pasteur
(1822 – 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist. . . . He is remembered
for . . . breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of diseases. . . . [He]
created the first vaccines for rabies and anthrax. His medical discoveries
provided direct support for the germ theory of disease and its application in
clinical medicine. He is best known to the general public for his invention of
the technique of treating milk and wine to stop bacterial contamination, a
process now called pasteurization. He is regarded as one of the three main
founders of bacteriology . . . and is popularly known as the "father of
microbiology."
Bechamp (1816 – 1908) was a
French chemist and biologist now best known as a rival of Louis Pasteur.
“‘The Battle for Health Is
Over pH” is a good book,” Mary said. That book reportedly emphasizes the role
the body’s acid-alkaline balance plays in maintaining optimum health. Many
researchers hold that a balanced pH is a foundation component to health and
wellness. Some say the contributing factors in all disease can be boiled down
to one very simple thing – too much acid.
From Wikipedia: “In chemistry, pH is a measure of the acidity
or ‘basicity’ of an aqueous solution. Solutions with a pH less than 7 are said
to be acidic and solutions with
a pH greater than 7 are ‘basic’ or alkaline. Pure water has a pH very close to
7. (‘pH’ [reportedly] stands for ‘power of hydrogen.’”
Antoine Bechamp said it’s not
germs that cause disease; it’s your cells not being healthy enough to fight the
disease off, Mary noted.
“Does a swamp attract
mosquitoes or mosquitoes attract the swamp,” she asked.
She said that Louis Pasteur
admitted on his deathbed that he was wrong.
“That whole thing [Pasteur’s
theory about germs] invented ‘attack things from the outside’ – not the inside,”
Mary said. She said about pH: “On a scale of one to 14, seven is neutral. Below
seven, acid starts to back up. Acid leads to disease. In your body, ‘yuck’
thrives in an acidic environment. Acid plus yuck equals chronic disease. . . .
Excess estrogen causes breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men.”
She said people can contract
Lyme’s Disease not only from ticks but also from spiders and mosquitoes.
Sugars
Grains and sugars are acidic,
Mary said. Use no more than 25 grams of sugars daily and get some of that from
fruit.
“There are 16 grams of sugar
in one tablespoon [of sugar],” she said. “There are 16 teaspoons of sugar in
one 12-oz. Coke.”
“That’s why I drink Pepsi,”
said Pastor David Pratt, who sat among the group. He leads Grace Church’s small
groups and prayer ministry.
Group laughter.
Mary said grains are not good
for humans. Any food made from wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, barley or another
cereal grain is a grain product. Bread, pasta, oatmeal, breakfast cereals,
tortillas, and grits are examples of grain products.
“Sweet potatoes are OK, but
high in sugar,” she said. “Grains are addictive.”
Fruit is very high in sugar,
she noted.
“Your body could live a long
time without carbohydrates, and without fruit,” she said.
Protein:
“Don’t eat processed meat,”
Mary advised.
Healthy fats and vegetables:
Coconut is a good fat. Canola
oil is high in omega 6. Corn oil and peanut oil are high in omega 6. Eat butter
(not margarine!), and raw nuts and raw vegetables, she said.
She reviewed the government
site (www.choosemyplate.gov) and
found it advised eating too much grain, along with other skewed
recommendations. The American Heart Assoc. advised eating “whole grains.” She
disagrees. She presented her own guidelines for eating shown on a chart called “Mary’s
Plate.”
“‘Wheat Belly’ is a good
book,” Mary said. She said one of her brothers “went from 250 pounds to 200”
after reading and applying guidelines in “Wheat Belly.”
She said grain is the source
of our “issue.”
“Grain puts weight in your
middle,” she said. “I’m not a calorie counter.”
She also advised that people
should “eat right for their blood types.”
“O+ needs red meat,” she
said. “A types don’t need as much red meat.”
Coffee beans are one of the
most pesticide-laden beans on earth, Mary noted. And she lemon juice is good to
drink; it “turns alkaline” inside your body.
“Commit to cook from scratch,”
Mary said. “Prepared foods have preservatives."
GMOs
She briefly discussed GMOs, “genetically
modified organisms.”
Added information from http://action.greenamerica.org: “GMOs, or ‘genetically
modified organisms,’ are plants or animals created through the gene splicing
techniques of biotechnology (also called genetic engineering, or GE). This
experimental technology merges DNA from different species, creating
unstable combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and viral genes that
cannot occur in nature or in traditional crossbreeding. . . . Studies point to
the idea that there’s grave cause for concern about the health effects of
consuming GMOs and the chemicals they are sprayed with, including food
allergies, irritable bowels, organ damage, cancer.”
Stress
“Address your stress,” Mary
said. “Most of us live lives that are far too busy. . . . In 1910, the average
American got 10 hours of sleep per night in America. The more sleep you get
before midnight, the better sleep you get.”
She said we need to “get more
Word” into our hearts.
“What is it worth to you to
be healthy?” She asked. “You have to swim upstream [to be healthy].”
