BETTER HEALTH — MADE SIMPLE !

Thirty-four Steps to Happier Living – A Complete Online Health Course!

Published by TRAIL GUIDES - Altamont, TN 37301 USA

Road maps for pilgrims traveling home

LESSONS 3-4

LESSON THREE - LIFE IN THE BLOOD

1- Let us now, in our imagination, go traveling. The trip we are going to take is along the "River of Life." That is what we could call the Blood Stream within our bodies. This trip is a very long one. In fact, if we explored all the branches of this river, we would travel more than 69,000 miles (112,000 kilometers). That would be like going around the world three times.

2- The best place to start is the Heart. That is where the blood is pumped to all parts of the body. This is the homeport for all the little Blood Cells. These cells carry cargos that they keep changing. These blue cell-ships are carrying cargos of carbon dioxide. The heart will send them on to the lungs. In the lungs, the carbon dioxide is exchanged for life-giving oxygen. This changes the color of the cells. The cells must carry this new cargo to each of the tissues or body cells throughout the body.

3- After the cells leave the heart with their load of oxygen they pass by the Digestive System to pick up such things as fuel and repair parts to take to their respective ports of call, or in other words, to the cells which comprise different parts of the body. Each cell must pass through the great filter plant called the Kidneys, many times each day for a clean-up job. Otherwise they would soon become very polluted and you would be in bad trouble.

4- Do you know how long it takes the little cell-cargo ships to make a round trip from the time they come into your heart, go out to the lungs, return to the heart and then go out to the body, deliver the cargo and then return to the heart? As little as twenty seconds. "How can the blood move so fast?" You may ask. The great Artery, into which the heart pumps the blood as it returns to the body, is like a great roadway where the cars can travel very fast. When the cells leave your heart they are traveling at the rate of about 43 ˝ miles (70 kilometers) an hour.

5- Of course, as they get to smaller and smaller streams they slow down. Then they get to the very smallest streams, only one cell can go at a time. Here we see the cells bringing food, oxygen and repair materials to exchange for carbon dioxide and other waste material. This exchange takes about one second. Then the cells start their return to the heart and lungs.

6- The streams through which the blood leaves the heart are called "Arteries." The streams through which the blood comes back to the heart are called “Veins”. Maybe you have wondered why the blood in your hands and feet does not just stay there. Why does it go up hill? Part of the answer is in the fact that the walls of healthy arteries and veins can expand and contract, but they have no muscles.

7- The heart itself is such a strong muscles that it can force the blood throughout the whole body to keep moving twenty-four hours a day. The heart beats about 100,000 times a day.

8- Also, in your veins are a system of Valves, which keep the blood from going backward after each beat. Also, the veins are close to the muscles. They depend on your moving muscles to help the blood move. This is why your legs may ache if you have to stand still for a long time. People who stand a lot, or who wear clothing that restricts the flow of blood, sometimes develop what is known as varicose veins. The veins are unusually swollen. This also shows us why exercise is important.

9- After a meal, more blood is needed by the digestive organs to help digest the food. While exercising, more blood is needed by the muscles to give them strength and vigor. While studying or thinking very hard your brain needs more blood. So you can see it is not good to do heavy work or exercise right after a big meal. It is also not good to try to do heavy mental work right after a big meal. Either one interrupts digestion and results in poor general efficiency. Neither is it good to rest right after a meal. It is better to do some light work, so as to keep the blood moving in a normal way.

10- Some of you may have wondered about the meaning of the term, "Blood Pressure." Why does the doctor put a pressure cuff around you arm, make it tight, then put his stethoscope to his ears and listen? Well, he is measuring somewhat the health of your heart and your blood vessels, by finding out the amount of pressure in the arteries during the resting time between beats. If your heart is pumping properly and if your arteries are clean and elastic, the pressure should be somewhere between 110 and 130 at the time of the heart beat. During the time of rest, the pressure should be less than that. It should be around 65-85.

11- We hear a great deal about pollution these days. How sad when this happens to the river of blood flowing through our bodies. Since the arteries and veins themselves are made of living blood. They can be injured by not getting enough of the right kind of food, or by getting too much of the wrong kind. For example, when we eat more than the body needs, the excess food is stored as fat, and a fatty substance begins to line the arteries. The result is hardening of the arteries. Of course, the heart has to push harder as the artery passage becomes smaller. This makes more work for the heart. When the artery becomes completely closed, we are in trouble

12- The organ served by these arteries suffers. If they are the arteries of the heart itself which becomes clogged, the result is a heart attack. If the arteries to the brain become clogged, a stroke occurs. Every day thousands of people die, prematurely from polluted, clogged bloodstreams. Many say "It is God's will." But instead, it is man's careless attitude toward his body and its proper care.

13- Here are some tips on how to keep your blood stream clean: Do not eat too much. The less fats of any kind you eat, the healthier you will be. Use oil in small amounts in cooking. Avoid the use of hard fat such as butter, and hydrogenised cooking fats. Avoid all animal fats. Do not use rich foods containing plenty of fat and sweet. Avoid the use of tobacco, tea, coffee, and alcohol. Get plenty of exercise in the fresh air, if possible.

14- Believe it or not, worry, anger, fear, anxiety, frustration, tension, and jealousy can also damage your heart and blood stream. So can remorse and feelings of guilt. Practice good mental habits and habits of life.

15- Follow good eating habits. Eat only at mealtime. Eat only enough for health. Eat building foods and avoid sugar and much starch. Try to be a little under weight rather than over weight.

16- Get regular exercise. Trust in God. Think right thoughts. Do good to others. All these habits will keep your blood in good condition. As your billions of cells are fed by the life-giving blood, your body will be healthy, because the life is in the blood.

17- THE LIFE IS IN THE BLOOD! (Lev. 17:11.) This was the great lesson that God wanted to teach Adam and Eve as they left their garden home. They would have to die, because by following Satan and believing him they had separated themselves from God, who only has life and who only can give life. Because God loved them greatly, He made a way whereby their sin could be passed on to another and thus be taken from them. Someone else would take their sin and would pay the penalty for sin. God did not reveal all of His plan to Adam and Eve at once. He told them a little of it, as children are taught little by little. In order to help them understand, He used things they could see.

18- God chose a lamb as the one thing which Adam and Eve knew, that could most nearly represent the one who, as their substitute, would carry their sin and pay its price. The wages of sin is death.

19- They were to confess their sins and put them on the lamb by laying their hands on its head. In symbol this transferred the sin from Adam and Eve to the Lamb. Then the lamb was slain by the one who had sinned. This showed that it was his sin that caused the death of the lamb. This also taught the great lesson that the life is in the blood, and only by giving His own life would the One who was represented by the lamb have the right to carry the sins of another.

20- Then the body of the lamb was laid upon an altar and God sent down fire from heaven and burned it up. This showed them that sin is a terrible thing which can only be destroyed by fire, and in the last days of this world's history God will destroy all sin by fire.

21- Through believing God's promise of a Saviour to come, who would pay the price of their sin for them leaving them free from the penalty of sin, Adam and Eve had the hope of being allowed to live once more in their beautiful garden home after all sin has been destroyed.

22- Not only Adam and Eve, but all their descendants can also have the hope of eternal life, through believing and accepting the Saviour represented by the lamb, the One who would give His own life in order to have the right to carry all the sins of everyone who would believe on Him.

Jesus is the Lamb that saves us from sin. He alone can forgive our sins and enable us to obey God.

"He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning."- 1 John 3:8. (John 8:44.)

"By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."-Romans 5:12.

"Whosoever committeth sin transqresseth also the law [of God]: for sin is the transgression of the law."- 1 John 3:4.

Although "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), yet in the Garden of Eden Satan gave two very significant lies that led our first parents into sin. (1) If you sin you will not and cannot die, and (2) if you sin you will rise to a greater position and knowledge, and will, yourself, become God. Satan has used these two basic lies to destroy millions since then. He is using them today.

"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.­ Genesis 2:16-17.

"And the serpent [Satan, speaking through a snake] said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."-Genesis 3: 4-5.

LESSON FOUR - YOUR BODY SYSTEMS

1- The smallest unit of life is the cell. Do you have any idea how many of these tiny microscopic units make up your body? You are made up of approximately one hundred trillion cells. It is hard for the mind to grasp such a large number. These are your body's building blocks!

2- Different kinds of cells do different kinds of work. Let us look at a few.

3- When you ride in a taxi, jeep, or bus, why do you not worry about how the vehicle will turn the corners and weave in and out of traffic? You know the driver will take care of that by steering. But the steering is a very complicated system requiring many parts. There are also other systems in the car—and these must cooperate with the steering system to make the car go. Your body is like a car. It has many systems in order to help it function properly. There are various kinds of cells, which make up these different systems.

4- As every building has some kind of framework to support it, so also the body. There are 206 bones held together by connective tissue: This is the skeletal system. By the way, if you think of bones as dry and dead you are very mistaken. Bones are like busy factories.

5- One of the important differences between the framework of the human body and that of a house is the parts must be able to move! Your bones can move only when they are pulled. So, there are over 600 muscles making up the muscular system. Thanks to them, you can move your arms legs, feet and hands, head and trunk. This system also has the job of pushing food through the body, pumping your heart, and making your blood circulate through the heart and body. Wherever there is movement in the body, the muscles do the work. You use thirty-nine muscles when you frown.

6- We speak of a healthy muscle as having good tone. Your muscles should be able to contract and expand like a good piece of rubber. Poor muscle tone is like worn-out rubber that has no more life in it. Regular exercise is important for good muscle tone.

7- The muscles that move your bones do not move by chance—they must be signaled by the brain. So the body is equipped with a system somewhat like a radio-television-telegraph network. This intricate network is called the nervous system. Your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and touch, all help to collect information to be signaled to the brain.

8- One part of the nervous system sends signals without your having to think about them. For example, you do not have to tell your heart when to beat, and you do not have to remind yourself every time you need to take a breath. It is not necessary to tell the stomach to start digesting your food. This marvelous system takes care of these vital processes automatically.

9- Everyone of your body cells needs fuel in order to do its work. And the greater the movement of the body, the more fuel is necessary. Food is your fuel, and it provides energy to every cell through the marvelous digestive system. This system breaks up food so that it can be absorbed to supply energy for living and working. It starts with the mouth, continues to the stomach, receives help from several other organs such as the liver, pancreas, gall bladder, and goes on through the small and large intestines where food and water are absorbed.

10- But just as fire cannot burn without oxygen, so your body cannot use the energy it gets from food unless it has oxygen. Oxygen is in the air that we breathe. Through the respiratory system life-giving oxygen is carried to the blood, which in turn carries it to the cells. This system starts with the nose, and continues to the lungs, through the trachea, or wind­pipe. Here the pipe divides and divides until the air passes into pipes so small they cannot be seen except by a microscope.

11- Whenever fuel is burned, carbon dioxide is formed. This is true with the cells of your body also. So the respiratory system removes the carbon dioxide from the blood and sends it out when you exhale. You should learn to sit and stand properly so that the lungs can get the oxygen the body needs. Feeling drowsy and tired is very often simply the lack of enough oxygen in your tissues!

12- The food prepared by the digestive system, and the oxygen made available by the respiratory system gets to each of the 100 trillion cells by means of another great system Your circulatory system passes the blood, loaded with the necessities for the cells, through more than 62,000 mile (1000,000 kilometers) of tubing. From the wide tubes of the heart, the blood flows as if going from the trunk of a tree out to the smallest leaves. This set of tubes is called arteries. It returns to the heart through another set called veins. These are literally your life lines! Are yours in good working order?

13- Whenever fuel is burned, gas is given off and ashes are left. We have mentioned the carbon dioxide gas, but what about the "ashes"-the other substances that are left? The fire of life would soon be burned out if these were not removed somehow. This is the work of the excretory system. Would you believe that each of your kidneys has more than 124 miles (200 kilometers) of microscopic tubes through which more than the equivalent of 158 (150 liters) of fluid pass every 24 hours? The kidneys carefully strain this fluid. The keep back the substances needed by the body, and the dispose of the rest in the urine, which is passed every day. To keep this system in good working order, you should be drinking at least six to eight glasses of water every day.

14- One of the most wonderful of all the systems God placed in man is the reproductive system. Each of us started with just one single cell which was actually a combination of two cells—one from the mother and one from the father. The cell divided into two. Those two divided again, and then there were four, and so on.

15- In that first cell was the exact pattern to make you, a human being instead of a frog or an elephant or a fish. But not only that! All the details were there in that first cell to make you an individual and not a carbon copy of any other human being! Your height, sex, straight or wavy hair, your features were all there in that first cell! And as the cells divided they knew just when and how to become the various kinds of cells which compose all these various systems we have mentioned.

16- There is no single-celled creature in the world that can laugh, sing, play, know what joy is like, or how it is to be sad, know the thrill of love and worship, or the fun of learning something new. Human beings have truly been given the priceless gift of life in a most marvelous form.

17- David Grant, a noted doctor, was one day dissecting a body and lecturing to his class. Suddenly he paused and turned to the students. "Gentlemen," he said, "here in this human organism is a complete denial of what is called atheism. No reasonable being can look upon the miraculous construction and arrangement of organs in this body without acknowledging that some Creative Power above and beyond human comprehension must have been responsible for them." God never intended man to die. The scientists do not know why man should die, they only know that he does. God intended all systems in man to be able to function endlessly.

18- Yes friends, God made man. David declared, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." How true! Every organ has a vital function to perform. Man truly is organized for action. You have not actually seen yourself inside as I have described. But any one who has seen what man looks inside must be convinced that God placed all these organs in man for a purpose—that all functioning properly and in a healthy manner can help man to honour this wonderful Creator and God.

19- Yes, Medical Science has pulled back the curtain of mystery and let man take a little peek at himself. But Medical Science cannot tell us what God, who created man is like. We must turn to God's book for that. This book is called the Bible.

20- The Creator, the One who made all things, is God. God rules the universe. God made everything in heaven and earth. He made the world and everything in it; the stars you see at night, the sun and the moon; they are all His. The power of creation, the ability to bring a world into existence by only speaking, is the reason for His being God. Only the true, living God has the power to create by His word and to give life.

21- When God created the world, He did it by speaking. "He spake and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast." Psalm 33:9.

22- When God made man, He said, "Let us make man in our Image." Genesis 1:26. This lets us know that there is more than one person in the Godhead. There are three in the God­head, or what may be called The God Family; they are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. These three together are one God.

23- In the Bible we read, "There is but one God, the Father of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him." These are mysteries which we, being human, do not fully understand, but we believe them because God has told us about them in His Holy word, the Bible.

24- Ephesians 1:20, 22 says that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father and that God has given all authority to Jesus. The Bible further tells us that Jesus performed the work of creation. Colossians 1:16, "By Him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions or principalities or powers."

25- The Bible further tells us that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is equal with His Father, and the Father does everything through Him. By His power, Jesus Christ sustains, or upholds all things.

26- Because we are His children by creation, God loves us, and gives us all good things. He wants us to be healthy, happy, and prosperous. As His children, we should love and honor Him by believing His word and obeying His commandments. This is the way to more abundant life now and eventually, joyful life eternal.

27- God's nature is to love. We read in 1 John 4:8, "God is love." The only thing God really hates is sin, because it causes death. Romans 6:23. Because God loves man, He has given him everything he needs to reach life's goal of happiness and correct balance of physical, mental, social and spiritual development. Man is not able to attain these goals by himself, so God also gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, that through His power our failures and mistakes can be overcome and God's desire for our happiness be fulfilled.

28- It was His Son, Jesus, who as represented by the Lamb of sacrifice to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve learned that the lamb they killed could not of itself take away their sins.

29- They believed that when Jesus would come and would die, He would take away all the sins by His death. In the studies to come we shall learn more fully of the wonderful provision God has made for us. We can overcome sin through Jesus Christ, and we can have a more abundant life now throughout all eternity.

The story of redemption is God's plan to save us from sin. Jesus died so that we could be forgiven and empowered to obey God's Law. He is our Sacrifice, Priest and Lamb:

"And let them make Me a Sanctuary that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it."-Exodus 25:8-9.

"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."-John 1:29.

"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly . . But God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."-Romans 5:6,8.

LESSONS 5 - 6

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