How about no debt in 2008!

Most people don't find out until it's too late
That someone has to pay the price,
You can pay it yourself,
or get someone else,
But who would be that nice?
To pay a debt that isn't his,
Well I know someone like that.
He's your best friend,
He really is, He really loves you.

Most people don't find out until they're half dead,
that they need another life.
You say you've heard everything that's ever been said,
about the way, the truth, the life.
You say you've heard lots of preaching,
all before,
but did you ever open up your door,
give him a chance to prove Himself,
He's real you know.

I hope you find out before it's too late,
that there's really nobody else,
you know its breaking His heart,
the longer you wait,
Cause' you've only been lying to yourself.
No one believes a word you say - not even you.

You know your gonna find out that He's the way,
no matter which way you choose,
but I pray you'll find out what He's done for you.

Jesus.

(Words above by Keith and Melanie Green)

America the fat?

It is no secret that America is the earth's most obese large nation. I used the adjective "large" because there are smaller, homogeneous countries where obesity is more of a problem (Samoa, for example). All one need do to verify this fact is to observe persons where one works, travels or spends much of his or her day. Obesity in the U.S. is a national health crisis, and for many a personal crisis as obesity affects every aspect of our physical and mental lives.

Obesity is defined as a Body mass Index (BMI) of 20kg/sqm or greater. The BMI is seriously flawed, I know (in college, at age 18, I had a BMI which labeled me as obese because of my muscular structure, even though I had a measured body fat of only 4% and wrestled competitively) but the BMI is what our country uses so we have to deal with it for now. A BMI which registers 20kg per square meter puts a person at serious risk for quite a number of mental and physical problems. Hypertension, diabetes, gall bladder disease, osteoarthritis, and sleep apnea are just a few of health problems you will suffer if you are morbidly obese.

In the U.S., the diet and supplement industry is a growing, multi-billion dollar industry which purports to help persons lose excess weight. Some programs such as weight watchers and Jenny Craig have some verifiable success, but these programs are fairly restrictive and can be expensive.

Science has experimentally determined that obesity causes major health problems, and yet more and more Americans are becoming obese, why is this?

Recently, I was in China and was given the answer by a Chinese man. He asked me if I wanted to know why Americans were "so fat". Curious, I said "yes". He said simply, "You eat too much".

Could this be true? Could the American obesity epidemic be due simply to volume? Well, it turns out that it can and indeed may be. Dr. Andrew Chung of Atlanta conducted research related to obese cardiology patients in his practice. He found that most persons in his study consumed between 3 and 11 pounds of food per day. Very few modern humans require this much food for survival (the only exceptions being extreme athletes). Dr. Chung discovered that climbers of Mt. Everest required only 2 pounds of nutrition per day during their climb which required constant effort and struggle. Reasoning that the average American doesn't expend even a fraction of the energy of an Everest climber, he designed a diet which he calls the 2pdOMER diet. Basically, this diet restricts a persons food intake to 2 pounds or less per day.

Can this really work, and is weight maintenance really this simple?

I think it might be. While I always lose weight when I travel to wierd places in the world, (often because of illness) I almost always gain it back within 2 weeks of returning to the U.S. However, after the rebuke of the Chinese man, I decided to try Dr. Chung's program for myself. The results? Not only have I not gained back the weight I lost in China, I have lost additional weight and am looking forward to reducing the size of my clothing for the first time in 10 years.

What I discovered in China was that I didn't need huge amounts of food. Even Chinese athletes I met didn't consume nearly as much as I had normally consumed in the course of a day.

In conclusion, if you are struggling with weight, here's some food for thought.
To see what being overweight is doing to you physiologically, go here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?highlight=obesity&rid=obesity.section.136

Dr. Chung's website can be viewed from the link at the top of the page.

Buy a cheap food scale and try limiting your entire food intake to 2 pounds per day. You'll discover some strange things. One, you'll find that you won't be able to eat much fast food. A whataburger with cheese weighs in at 1.6 pounds. Add fries and you are pretty close to using up all of your available food mass for an entire day.

Will you be hungry? Yes. For the first few days, you will experience hunger, but being hungry for a bit isn't going to kill anyone and will in fact be a benefit to you. Then, as your body adjusts to eating less, the hunger pangs will decrease and will eventually go away.

As an individual and as a nation we must decide to do what is right. All of the information in the world won't do a bit of good if we ignore it. If you are struggling with weight, here is some information - now it is up to you to take action.

Blessings,

Jeff Cokenour

Life in Tibet

Having just returned from the highest city on earth, I thought it might be a good idea to write down what it is like in Lhasa, Tibet.

Once the secluded fortress of the Dalai Lama, Lhasa, Tibet is now a bustling, if dirty Chinese city. Since the "peaceful occupation" of Tibet by the Chinese army in 1949, the government of China has relocated hundreds of thousands of Chinese into the city and the population is now more Chinese than Tibetan.

Lhasa sits in between beautiful mountains at 12,000 feet above sea level. Once known as the world's most closed city (no westerner ever set foot there before the Chinese invasion) Lhasa is now a bustling center of tourism and a growing urban metropolis complete with trash, vehicle emissions and Karaoke.

But, we weren't there to enjoy the smog or the smoke-filled internet cafe's filled with WOW gamers, we were there for a couple of reasons:

1. To investigate a nasty disease called Kashin-Beck.
2. To share the love of Jesus Christ with those whom we met.

Kashin-Beck disease is a severe form of arthritis which deforms the joints (knee, wrist, neck and others) and curves the spine ( much like scoliosis). Our purpose on this trip was to collect DNA samples from affected persons to determine if there is a possible genetic mutation which increases the likelihood of contracting this disease. While we are reasonably sure the disease does not follow pure Mendelian patterns (it isn't passed on in a recessive or dominant pattern), it does appear that some sort of multifactorial genetics come into play as women predominate over men with the disease, and within nuclear families (families with the same mom and dad), some children may be affected, while others are not. The Chinese insist that there are environmental aspects as well, which we cannot deny, but my suspicion is that environmental factors play a small role, if any.


Here is a woman affected by the disease:
















While you might think that nothing appears out of the ordinary for this woman, when I saw her in person (I am the world's worst photographer) I thought she was in her late 60's. her spine is bent and her hands swollen, as are her knees and elbows. She is in her 40's.

This is what happens to your major joints when you have Kashin Beck disease:
















Notice the very enlarged areas on both sides of her knees - this lady is only 40 years old. The bones which comprise her knee are rubbing together - the cartilage is gone, which is one reason for the swelling. Imagine, if you can, walking each and every day with no cartilage between your bones.

Well, you may ask, "What can I do about something like this?"

There are at least two things you can do. One, is pray and ask God to reveal to us the cause and the cure for this disease. Two, you can either come with us the next time we go, or you can support a team member by helping to underwrite the cost of their trip.


If you are interested in more information regarding this project, scientific information regarding the disease or supporting this work, you can email me at:

jeff.cokenour@gmail.com

Or visit our website at www.innovativehs.net

A great story for a hard day

Though we never met, I think that Malcolm Muggeridge was one of the finest men the west has ever produced - or perhaps more accurately, that came out of the west despite its delinquencies. Another fine man of character (and not coincidentally a friend of Mr. Muggeridge) was David Niven - actor extraordinare and British war hero.

Mr. Niven tells a wondrous story of his service which can brighten even the harshest day.

In 1940, about 3,000 people were evacuated from france after the battle of Dunkirk - many of them Red Cross workers as well as British soldiers. Those fleeing were sent on board an old liner called the Lancastria and escorted by 3 British destroyers. Well, the Germans spotted this easy target and placed a bomb down its central smoke stack. The ship began to list terribly to one side as it began to sink. Many people rushed to the upper deck to jump overboard, but several hundred soldiers and sailors were trapped in a hold and could not escape because the ship lay almost on its side.

A young Catholic priest, serving as Chaplain onboard the ship, took a rope and lowered himself down into the hold, knowing that he and the men could never escape. Many of those who jumped overboard amid the burning oil and rubbish and waves said they would have given up and drowned except that over all the noise of the battle, they could hear resounding hymns emanating from the sinking ship even as it slipped beneath the waves.

Perhaps hundreds of men and some women are in heaven now because of a single act of sacrifice by one young man. His light continues to shine atop the hill of the world and his lamp will probably never go out as long as there is an earth.

When your day is hard and things aren't going as well as they might, think of this young man singing and encouraging hundreds of others as they prepare to make the journey from this world to the next.

The best representative of Jesus I ever met

Since no one reads this blog except me, I figured I might as well put something here to help me remember something good in a world full of things which seem pretty bad.

Jim (not his real name) came to me one day with a "big problem" - he and his wife weren't getting along. Jim is a rather tall, fairly stout man who, on a standardized test might score a little bit slower than most people, but who is perhaps the most sincere, kind person I have ever met.

I knew Jim's children and as Jim went on to explain how his wife had begun not coming home after work, and showing up in public with a scumbag, I began to wonder what might happen if he were forced to raise them on his own.

I also waited to hear Jim say something like "will God hate me if I get a divorce?" Neither those words nor any remotely similar ever crossed his lips. Jim asked me to call his wife and talk to her (which was a very odd exercise in nonsense) and asked me to pray repeatedly so that his marriage would not fail.

The relationship between Jim and I went on for sometime in this manner - he would stop me at odd times and ask me to help him and often reluctantly, I would.

One day was particularly hard for Jim as his wife had assaulted him with a heavy object and his oldest child called the police. His deep blue scar and swollen eye made me wonder how on earth he could remain loyal to such an evil person.

As things progressively worsened, I referred Jim to an attorney and advised him to at least take his kids and flee for safety. Our final visit precluded the necessity of his having to do this because he found his wife on the sofa in the morning - dead from a drug overdose.

I haven't seen Jim in over 2 years and I never tried to keep up with him, but I will never forget him. Every time that I think life would be so much easier on the other side of marriage, I remember this good man who was far more faithful to his wife than I would ever be. Why?

Well, personally I think that the Roman Governor Felix's proclamation to St. Paul wasn't that far off. Felix told Paul, "much learning has made you mad!" Paul went on to tell Felix that he really wasn't crazy and that Jesus really did rise from the dead. We never learn if Felix understood and believed in Jesus, but he was right about "much learning". I don't know if Jim ever finished high school. Certainly, he never attended college and yet he had more kindness, love and wisdom in his little finger than I will ever have. Jim believed what the bible said - lock, stock and barrel. Jim didn't need lectures on dispensational theology and he probably didn't even know what a hermeneutic was.

If I were to find myself in heaven today and were to ask Jesus something like, "Why didn't you give us a real, physical example for our time of how to live?" I think He would laugh and step aside to reveal a smiling Jim, and say, "I did."

Sharing God's love in remote corners of the world

Lhasa, China (Formerly Tibet) is a beautiful, interesting place with a terrible problem. The problem is a disease endemic to this region, known as Kashin-Beck disease (KBD). KBD terribly affects the children of Tibet, inflicting them with severe arthritis, deformities, and extreme pain.

The physicians at Medicines sans frontieres spent ten years investigating this disease but were unable to develop a treatment protocol or discover a cure for KBD.

Last year, an organization that I have been very fortunate to be associated with was asked by the government of China to investigate this disease. I happened to be conducting research on enzyme-related biochemical reactions and KBD appears to involve problems in enzyme catalysis.

My hypothesis is that the Glutathione Peroxidase-1 enzyme (GPX1) enzyme, which is seleno-dependent, is not functioning properly in KBD victims and therefore the victims experience gross deficiencies in selenium, iron and other trace essential elements.

This summer (July) Innovative Humanitarian Solutions was invited to investigate this hypothesis by initiating a clinical trial in the Lhasa region. This trial will be overseen by the Centers for Disease Control in Lhasa, China under the Direction of Dr. Zugang Jiang.

Dr. Richard Gunasekara, Ph.D., a University of Houston-Victoria professor and well-known geneticist will accompany a research team to Lhasa to oversee the trial initiation and to collect data for genetic screening of the population related to this disease.

Conducting work of this nature isn't cheap, but investigating the cause and developing a treatment protocol for a disease is infinitely less expensive than caring for its victims after they have contracted it.

The half-brother of Jesus Christ named James once asked the question, "If a brother or sister is naked and without daily food and they come to you and you tell them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled" but you do not feed and clothe them, what good is that?"

The Christian life is a life of action. R. Buckminster Fuller once said, "God is a verb". If you understand this and would like to help support the work of Innovative Humanitarian Solutions in Lhasa, providing hope for children of KBD, then please click here: www.innovativehs.net.

Please label your support : Tibet-trial so we will know where to post the funds.

May God richly bless you,

Jeff Cokenour

The dignity of human life

Dear Friend,

There is a draft bill which is today circulating in the British House of Commons which has the potential to destroy the most important aspect of planet earth – human life itself. This bill, entitled the Human Tissue and Embryos draft bill authorizes British scientists to genetically modify live human embryos with the DNA of other organisms. All persons concerned in any way with human life must be outraged at such a blatant disregard for humanity and indeed for life itself.

By definition, an embryo is an egg which is fertilized. Fertilization of a human egg endows the embryo with all of its potential genetic attributes; each and every aspect of the fully developed human being is contained within this fertilized egg. It is at the point of fertilization that human life must begin. This rule applies to all mammalian life – not only humans. Can one imagine a geneticist proclaiming that the fertilized fish embryo in his laboratory is in fact a giraffe? Of course this would be called silly and foolish – giraffes do not emanate from fish embryos. Neither do anything but human beings emanate from human embryos. To experiment with live human embryos in such a fashion is to disregard the very tenet that human life is special and deserves the utmost care and respect.

One would think that the British of all peoples, would understand this fact. Many of the world’s great scientific and social discoveries emanated from Great Britain. Britain is the land of William Wilberforce who ended slavery in the United Kingdom and whose influence brought abolition to the United States as well. Sir Isaac Newton, who discovered the very foundational laws of our physical world was British and held the utmost respect for human life.

Proponents of this bill rightly claim that the bill itself contains prohibitions for the implantation of modified embryos into human females. However, any thoughtful person can see that this is a vain and transparent attempt to appease those concerned with human dignity and life in the hope that so-called “successful” experiments will enable scientists to persuade the British government and people to disregard these clauses at some later date.

This sort of dangerous experimentation is simply not necessary. Whatever gene expressions the British are allegedly seeking can be brought about in other ways which do not degrade human life and set the worth of humankind at the level of a laboratory experiment.

Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of propaganda described the medical experiments of the Nazis in the following statement, “Out starting point is not the individual, and we do not subscribe to the view that one should feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, or clothe the naked…our objectives are entirely different: we must have a healthy people in order to prevail in the world.”[1] Without a defined reverence for life, this is where mankind must end: the selfish pursuit of desire regardless of the temporal or eternal consequences. Reverence for life can and MUST be the beginning point for all human research, whether clinical, theoretical or genetic.

Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the physician-missionary who spent his life serving the people of Africa stated,

“Only by means of reverence for life can we establish a spiritual and humane relationship with both people and all living creatures within our reach. Only in this fashion can we avoid harming others, and, within the limits of our capacity, go to their aid whenever they need us."[2]

Contrast Dr. Schweitzer’s thoughts with those of the Cambodian despot, Pol Pot who murdered millions of his own people in the name of “progress”: “Since he is of no use anymore, there is no gain if he lives and no loss if he dies.”

Humanity is already seeing the result of this sort of thinking in the euthanasia and infanticide movements in Europe and in the abortion industry of America. The degradation of human life is also manifesting itself in the form of sexual enslavement of thousands of Russian, Chinese, and Korean girls who are being sold to western “husbands” who treat them as property. Can we not see the ultimate end of this sort of thinking?

The dignity of human life is the gravus eventum of our day. Immigration is not, terrorism is not, neither is economic prosperity, for if we cannot as a race understand the dignity of human life, then no other issue will be of any consequence. Thoughtful persons of every society – not scientists alone, must ensure the proper place for human scientific research.

C. S. Lewis summed up this idea perfectly, when he wrote,

“Who can endure a doctrine which would allow only dentists to say whether our teeth were aching, only cobblers to say whether our shoes hurt us, and only governments to tell us whether we were being well governed?”[3]

Those who value humanity, peace, love and dignity must rise up and stop this madness before it metastasizes into an uncontrollable disease which dooms our entire race. I urge you to avail yourselves of every peaceful avenue to forbid the practice of live human embryonic experimentation.

---

[1] United States Holocaust memorial museum online, “deadly medicine, creating the master race”.

[2] Schweitzer, Albert, Reverence for life, edited by Thomas Keirnan, Philosophical Library. No publisher listed.

[3] Lewis, C.S. A Preface to Paradise Lost: Being the Ballard Matthews Lectures Delivered at University College, North Wales, 1941,