Does Spirituality Exist Outside Of The Mind/Spirit?
The possible implications of eating any food that you should not.
He was a trim 55-year old man treated for H. pylori two years ago and who was now complaining of fatigue. He only drank 1 cup of coffee per day, ate tofu (sandwiches), did colonics, slept 7 hours a night, and did not drink alcohol. The rest of his life was also pretty much in balance personally, professionally, etc. During his examination, which was remarkably benign, it occurred to me that perhaps the coffee's adverse effects on his adrenals was the problem.
Then mentally I began defending myself before a judging panel of traditional medical inquisitors: "What hormonal abnormality/imbalance can you (me) demonstrate resulting from the use of coffee?" My mind continued drifting and I then began to think that his fatigue might be a spiritual issue in his adrenals, not something that I could actually demonstrate. That initially seemed an absurd concept to me until I began to think that why should spirituality be limited to the mind (mental)/spirit? Does not a "spirit" move from the mind of a trained dancer/gymnast to the body? Is it biochemistry or is it spirituality that explains how acupuncture works? What really/biochemically is this spiritual state that so many seem to swoon in so comfortably and from a health standpoint, profitably?
That's when I returned to the concept that at least as far as the adrenals go, there probably is some form of biochemical change that does occur in the adrenals when one drinks coffee, and I cannot currently prove/defend this thought due to our limited technology. But lacking such proof does not mean that it is not true. Many a person like myself has gained an insight for which there is later proof derived from functional MRI or PET scans, etc.
Let others do the scientific proof, I, for one, believe that coffee depletes the adrenals of energy, have suggested that all my patients stop all coffee, and when possible virtually all caffeine except for perhaps green and kukicha (twig) tea before it causes a spiritual loss and fatigue from depleted adrenals.
H. Robert Silverstein, MD
Hartford, CT