Hello! My name is David Busch and I am very new to the "hubber" world but I have a feeling I am going to be very grateful over time for finding this very cool web site! :)

A little bit about me: I am 51 years old and have lived for the most part in Marlborough, CT since 1987. I'm a mechanical engineer (since 1979), a holistic/nutritional/natural approaches to better health researcher and practitioner (http://howgoodcanyoufeel.com) and I also run a non-profit corporation that the supports the military (www.pillowsforsoldiers.com). My posts on this hub will focus on the research part of my passions. To that end, I would like to share with you how I "Got On The Path" to better health and as in many cases it is my own negative experiences that got me on the path. Although I would not wish this negative experience on anyone, I am grateful I went through the trauma, so I am able to share it with others, hopefully saving them from having to go through what I went through. I hope you as a reader will share this info with everyone you know, especially with young people (very important), parents of young children and people who have trouble losing weight. I know the information below can help. I lived it.

Lets go back to around 1988 or so when I was fat and drinking diet soda [(2) 32 oz per day sodas], eating refined breads and many carbs from sugar and drinking beer like it was going on of style (but mostly just on weekends). One day I woke up with this dull headache that is hard to describe, but it was always there. Many times it felt like I was going to lose my mind and the anxiety I felt was at times unbearable. During my younger years, my Mom who I love and respect dearly (she is the strongest women I know) had a very hard time with depression. Finally, I could understand what she went through when you can’t control your mind no matter how you try. I have to say that it wasn’t fun going through this experience, but in hindsight I am glad I did for two reasons. 1^st, I finally could understand my Mom’s illness, because no one understands these things until you go through them. If someone tried to tell me “hey, you’re okay, just think positive, I could not have done it and I know people with depression go through this treatment. People mean well, but they can’t understand. I did not have depression. I could get out of bed and keep up my responsibilities, but the incredible worry that there was something really wrong with me was always present. I thought "tumor in my head", etc. My anxiety really was uncontrollable and it was very hard to concentrate on anything. It affected my work, my relationships and I just never felt healthy. In fact, I had to stop “partying” because drinking made it worse. But I never thought at the time about how I was eating and drinking and what the cause may have been. (hint: I was out of balance) So I did the natural thing people do. I went to see a neurologist and he told me there was nothing wrong with me. Here is a drug for the “headache”. I took the drug and it would relieve things for a while then it would come back worse. Hey, at least I didn’t have a tumor and the Dr. said “it will go away”, thanks for the $100. Well, it didn’t go away. Now, I go to a sinus doctor who I knew. Again, no problem, another drug. No help. Now I think I am really going crazy and other parts of my body and not feeling well. My muscles were so tight all over my body, especially around my neck. My knees hurt and that actually turned out to be a good thing, which by the way is leading to the 2^nd reason.

I was playing basketball one day and I was sitting next to a guy and I am complaining about my head, my neck and my knees and the guy says, “I’m Dr. Fitzgerald and I’m a Chiropractor. Why don’t you come in and see me and I bet I can help you.” At that time, chiropractors were still sort of unaccepted, but I was willing to try anything. I made an appointment and the first two things he did was ask me about my diet and he took an x-ray of my neck. For some reason the conventional doctors didn’t think of that? Anyway, I told him about my diet soda [and the artificial sweetener in it is called NutraSweet (aspartame)] intake. He told me to get off the diet soda immediately and that is the 2^nd reason I am glad I got these headaches. Now I could share with people my experience and help them to avoid the pain, stress and anxiety I went through. When I got off the diet soda, it was not fun. I went through a detox that must feel like what drug addicts go through, maybe not as bad, but it was bad enough. Ironically, after I went through the detox for a couple of days, my head started clearing up. The headaches were easing and the anxiety stopped. At the same time, I was getting chiropractic adjustments on my neck (and really my whole body) because the x-ray showed I had a twisted vertebra in my neck that was almost 90 degree out of place. This was the real reason for the tight muscles throughout my body. So within 3 weeks of first seeing this chiropractor, the stress and anxiety were gone and it never came back. NutraSweet is a big toxin that should NEVER be ingested and kids should never consume the stuff. It has nothing to do with a good diet or losing weight at all and drinking it will keep the weight on you since your body has to deal with the toxins. Same thing with Splenda(Sucralos). We need to put these products out of business by never consuming them (and I'm sure I will will anger some people out there who may have an agenda by saying this) and they are in a lot of so-called foods. Read labels and avoid them. So this really was my first taste of natural healing. Remove toxins and align my neck and back vertebrae. It worked.

Fast-forward to 1993 and I have traumatic breakup with an ex-fiancé. Long story short, I was drinking too much and yelling too much, but I had the big blinders on. The cause of my problems were revealing themselves, but I couldn’t see them all. I quit drinking until 2001. In 1993, I began my journey in studying and applying nutrition that evolved for the next 16 years. I worked mainly with one nutrition company called Heritage Health Products out of Fort Collins Colorado, who made some of the finest nutrition products I could find at the time. How did I know? Well, I am an engineer and engineers like to know stuff, like details. I studied nutritional products and I needed to know what the active ingredients were in each product and especially how much of the active ingredients were in the products. There were too many so called nutritional products on the market that claimed they were nutritive, but did not contain enough of the active ingredients to actually make the products work and this gave a bad name to all nutrition products. Heritage tested every batch of product and would share their results with their distributors, but the bottom line, their products worked. Aloe Essence is my favorite one and I believe everyone on this planet could benefit from this one product in huge ways.

In that same year, I made a promise to myself to never put a prescription drug, over-the-counter drug or any synthetic in my body again. I lived up to that promise except for one drug . . . alcohol (I started drinking again in the summer of 2001) and I have to tell you, it has been the basis of all my troubles in my life. One imbalance can be so detrimental, but the good news is, you can change it. Once you make the decision to do so, nothing will stop you . . . so I decided. I decided to stop drinking and stop hanging out at bars in 2009. I know my life will get better for doing so. I know because I did it for 8 years before.

I guess the short story would be . . . Do NOT consume NutraSweet(Aspartame) or Splenda(Sucralos) and curtail, if not stop, your consumption of alcohol. And it really is not just alcohol consumption, it is the life style that goes along with it and that can make it hard to stop. If you do stop you may find out who your real friends are, because when you aren't drinking, over time you will find you aren't invited out as much because what they are doing is what you used to do, drink, and if you go with them and not drink it brings up their guilt. Your true friends will support you and maybe even follow you. Please be a leader for yourself, don't follow the pack. Your health may depend on it. Please know that if you are consuming any of the above in high quantities in a repetitive fashion and you stop cold turkey, most people will go through a detoxification period that may not feel too great. Contact me if you would like to know how to make your detox period shorter and experience less pain.

My last point in this hub: You have total power and control of your health because you are the one that decides what you will consume. If you don't put the things that the human body really doesn't want it in your mouth and swallow them, you will not get the negative side affects from those substances. On the other hand, feed your body what it does want and you will reap the benefits for a lifetime that most likely will be longer and, more importantly you will improve the quality of your life because you stay healthy. Staying healthy? Now I can't think of a better way to lower health care costs, can you?

http://howgoodcanyoufeel.com