Slow down for three minutes to read this.  It is so worth it. Touching words from the mouth of babes.

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of
4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does love mean?'

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined See what you think:

'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.'

Rebecca- age 8

'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'

Billy - age 4

'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'

Karl - age 5

'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'

Chrissy - age 6

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'

Terri - age 4

'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.'

Danny - age 7

'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss'

Emily - age 8

'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,'

Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.'

Noelle - age 7

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'

Tommy - age 6

'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.'

Cindy - age 8

'My mommy loves me more than anybody
You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.'

Clare - age 6

'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.'

Elaine-age 5

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.'

Chris - age 7

'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.'

Mary Ann - age 4

'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'

Lauren - age 4

'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' (what an image)

Karen - age 7

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.'

Mark - age 6

'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.'

Jessica - age 8

And the final one

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

'Nothing, I just helped him cry'

When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you need. Take 60 seconds and give this a shot! All you do is simply say the following small prayer for the person who sent you this.

Heavenly Father, please bless all my friends in whatever it is that You know they may be needing this day! And may their life be full of Your peace, prosperity and power as he/she seeks to have a closer relationship with You. Amen.

Then send it on to five other people, including the one who sent it to you. Within hours you caused a multitude of people to pray for other people. Then sit back and watch the power of God work in your life.

P. S. Five is good, but more is
better.
 
 

Can a hookworm make you healthy?

April 16, 2010 - 11:12 AM by Brian Blum

Can a hookworm make you healthy? Jasper Lawrence seems to think so. And now his special therapeutic worm treatment is available for shipment to Israel.

I first heard about Lawrence and his worms when they were featured on a recent episode of “This American Life,” one of the most popular podcasts available on iTunes. Lawrence had been suffering from asthma and allergies that were so debilitating that he could barely step outside.

Lawrence began to study his condition and discovered some fascinating research going on about parasites. We’ve all been taught that worms in the gut is a bad thing, leading to a whole range of illnesses, some quite serious (ask anyone who’s picked up a nasty bug in India).

But some worms may actually be good for us. A particularly type, called helminths (specifically hookworms and whipworms), apparently calms down inflammation rather than induces it. Joel Weinstock, a gastroenterologist in Iowa, did much of the pioneering research in the early 1990s.

The story gets kind of yucky from here. Lawrence traveled to Africa and began stomping around barefoot in public latrines. Eventually he picked up the worm he wanted and, lo and behold, he was cured of his allergies.

Dr. Weinstock’s work was originally conducted to understand why instances of IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) had increased so rapidly in the last century.  His conclusion,according to The New York Times:

“After a long co-evolution, the human immune system came to depend on the worms for proper functioning. When cleaner conditions and new medicines evicted the worms from our bodies, the immune system went out of kilter.”

As someone who suffers from the IBD condition of Crohn’s Disease, I know that the traditional treatments of steroids and surgery are highly intrusive and don’t work all that well. Weinstock says he has seen remarkable remission rates with worm “re-infestation.”

So where does Israel fit into the picture (other than the fact that Jews tend to be more prone to inflammatory bowel diseases)?

After allergy suffering Jasper Lawrence’s remarkable turn-around, he set up a company to harvest and sell worms to fellow sufferers. But the U.S. FDA shut him out of the North American market. But, as Lawrence wrote to me in a personal email, you can get his therapeutic worms here in Israel.

Helminth worm treatment reportedly works with other auto-immune ailments beyond IBD including celiac disease, psoriasis and MLS. There’s one big downside: treatment from Lawrence’s company starts at about $3,000. And you have to keep re-infesting yourself – it’s not a one time hit. And – no, don’t even ask – it’s definitely not covered by the local kuppot(Israeli HMOs).

My Crohn’s is mostly quiet these days. But if it heated up again and I were facing down another round of prednisone and pain, I’d seriously consider swallowing a cocktail of worm eggs.

More information at Lawrence’s website: http://autoimmunetherapies.com

Results of the Iowa Women's Health Study

Susan M. Gapstur, PhD; Monica Morrow, MD; Thomas A. Sellers, PhD

JAMA. 1999;281:2091-2097.

Context  Long-term, postmenopausal use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) appears to increase breast cancer risk. Whether the effect of HRT use on risk of breast cancer varies among histological types of invasive carcinoma is unknown.

Author Affiliations: Departments of Preventive Medicine (Dr Gapstur) and Surgery (Dr Morrow), and Lynn Sage Comprehensive Breast Center (Dr Morrow), Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Ill; and Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic/Foundation, Rochester, Minn (Dr Sellers).