Control Anxiety With Food

In our country today, anxiety has passed depression as the number one mental health issue.  As shown in the chart above, 18.1% of the US Adult population suffers from some sort of anxiety.  Out of that population, 22.8% of the cases are classified as severe.  Severe anxiety can result in not only feelings of heightened anxiety, but in panic attacks as well.  The most used treatments revolve around medications which suppress the feelings of anxiety rather than dealing with any underlying causes for the anxiety.

Depression, whether it is one episode or recurring episodes, effects 6.9% of the population overall, and according to the National Institute of Mental Health, effects more females than males.

Depression can appear in different ways between the sexes, so in my opinion, it is debatable as to whether males suffer less depression.  Male depression can exhibit in agitation, anger and frustration as well as somber mood and hopelessness.  Unless a practitioner understands that, males may go untreated and are therefore not included in these statistics.  Individuals with anxiety can also struggle with bouts of depression and vice versa.

How did we get to this place?  In my opinion there may be several reasons.  First, lack of personal identity is rampant in our society.  We are taught that we are what we do.  Whatever role we have, becomes who we are and when that role ceases, we become lost.  We are told that a person has no value unless they are successful, nice looking, financially stable or hold a job with a distinguishable title.  In order to achieve a feeling of worth and value, we tend to perform, work harder, do more and try our best to achieve that successful image.  That lifestyle is very stressful and individuals tend to burnout after awhile.

Second, we are just too busy.  People have sacrificed play time, rest time and face to face interaction with others for activities, social media and time in front of numerous screens.  These screens, whether they be computers, iPads, or phones, tend to stimulate the brain in ways that interfere with good sleep patterns. especially if we look at them up until the time we go to bed.

Busyness interferes with our eating patterns as well.  We catch a quick bite of something as we head out the door and eat it in the car on the way to dropping our kids off at school before work.  We have traded the relatively peaceful breakfast, lunch and dinner at the family table for Starbucks and fast food.  That takes a toll on what our bodies can handle.

So, how does food help us deal with anxiety?  It helps to provide our brain with enough consistent glucose so it is able to function well.  If we eat mostly or all carbohydrates at our meals, our brain has a good supply of glucose for 1.5 -2 hours after the meal.  If we don't eat again for 4 or 5 hours, the glucose supply becomes low and our brain becomes concerned.  According to Kristen Allot ND, "In order to continue to function well, the brain will tell the kidneys to release adrenaline in order to increase blood glucose.  Although the brain now has some fuel, the amygdala has been stimulated by adrenaline.  This can cause your concerns or irritations to become amplified into anxiety or anger."  Usually, when adrenaline is released, there is a reason.  We need it to function, to do something physically.  When adrenaline is used to feed the brain, it is still in the system because it doesn't get used up with physical exertion and then contributes to anxiety levels.

It is interesting to understand that the symptoms of Anxiety or Anger are very similar to the signs for Hypoglycemia.  Hypoglycemia can occur whenever our blood sugar levels drop.  Often we think we have problems with anxiety, when we may not be eating enough protein with our meals, or eating often enough so that our brains have the fuel needed to function without adrenaline release.  When a person eats at least 21 grams of protein with their main meals and eats at least every 4 hours, they should notice a decrease in anxiety.  If meals cannot be eaten every 4 hours, then a snack with carbs and protein should be eaten in order to keep the body functioning well.  Many of my clients notice a difference within 24 hours. Before modifying their eating habits, I often ask them to keep a food journal over 3-4 days.  They note what they have eaten, when they have eaten and when their anxiety levels or anger issues increase.  They often notice a change in their emotional health if they have gone two to four hours without eating and their previous meal was mostly carbohydrates.

Finally, if you have a snack before bed, just make sure it isn't sugary or full of carbohydrates.  Again, give  your body a dose of protein with your carbs and you may find that you sleep better.

What are some healthy protein sources?  Quinoa has 11 grams of protein per half cup.  Refried beans have 8 grams per half cup.  A quarter cup of nuts has 8 grams of protein and 2 T of nut butter has the same.  Seed butter, such as sunflower seed butter has 5 grams of protein per 2 T serving.  Greek yogurt and pumpkin seeds are a good snack with plenty of protein as well as cottage cheese that has 12 grams per half cup.  If you like eggs for breakfast, bear in mind that each egg only has 7 grams of protein so if you are shooting for 21 grams at breakfast, you either need 3 eggs or another source of protein with them.  3 ounces of wild fish, chicken, turkey, beef or pork will supply you with 21 grams of protein as well.

In closing, just a note.  You don't see me adding soy to the list of healthy proteins.  I don't recommend soy because it can create so many issues due to its estrogen content.  Soy is not the best protein to eat, in my opinion.  It is difficult to change your diet all at once, so give yourself some grace when starting a transition of this kind.  You may find it difficult to begin to eat healthier so try one meal at a time.  If you aren't a breakfast eater, try introducing the morning meal with a protein shake.  These kinds of transitions need to fit into your lifestyle and food preferences or they don't work.    The most important rule of thumb is to make sure you space your meals and snacks about 4 hours apart and make sure they contain at least 21 grams of protein for main meals and 6-7 grams of protein for snacks.   You should see a drop in your anxiety level if you implement these simple practices.  

Making a Case For Peace

It seems that the world is getting busier, people have less time and we are constantly being challenged to become more efficient and get more things done in a shorter amount of time.  As a result, stress has become a legitimate health concern. As many of us have discovered, stress and anxiety are not only problematic to our emotional lives, but in addition are destructive to our physical well being.

As a large number of natural health professionals have discovered, many of the physical ailments we contract have their roots in emotional distress.  According to Dr. A.F. Beddoe, "our thoughts and emotions combine to form vibrations - frequencies - our 'line of resistance'.  Our thoughts, mingled with either love or fear, will create our experiences that will then manifest in our lives physically, mentally, and spiritually, either as health or dis-ease."  He goes on to state in his book "Biologic Ionization As Applied to Human Nutrition" that 80% of all illness begins with holding on to negative emotion. Negative emotion tends to create a more acidic environment in the body which leads to disease and the breakdown of healthy physical functioning.  In essence, it isn't the exterior circumstances that create the stress, it is what we think about the exterior circumstances that creates stress.  This is not to say that a person cannot push themselves beyond their physical limitations, creating stress from exhaustion.  However, on many levels we tend to emotionally respond to life which often produces stress if those emotions are based on fear. 

Love and fear are the basic motivators in life.  Fear puts the body into fight or flight mode, releasing adrenaline and noradrenalin.  These chemicals contract muscles as well as activate the sympathetic nervous system.  When a person lives in even a low level of fear consistently, the body responds as if there is a consistent threat.  Eventually we reach a level of adrenal fatigue, the body is no longer able to counteract the effects and we become tired, depressed and irritable.  Over time, our neural net reacts to this chemistry by creating more receptor sites to accommodate the excess negative chemistry.  As a result, when those neurotransmitters are not available we can be agitated in a similar way an addict is agitated when their drug of choice is not present in the body.  In essence, we become addicted to our own body chemistry.

Love, on the other hand tends to enhance the emotional states of joy, happiness and well-being.  When we are happy, we are not anxious.  Our bodies are producing more calming types of chemicals such as PEA and Dopamine, and our cortisol levels are lower.  When we are calm, thought processes are more coherent, we make better decisions and our bodies are not working so hard to maintain balance. Many people find this a much more desirable state in which to live.  Additionally, the science of Positive Psychology confirms that happier people are more productive, live longer and have a healthier quality of life.

 So, you ask....how do I live a more peaceful life?  The short answer is balance.  Everything in nature, including human beings, is designed to live in a state of balance.  Our work life, family life, spiritual life, pleasure and rest all must balance out.  If we rob from one area to give time to another area, we will pay the consequences by not receiving the full benefit from the area we have robbed.    For example, if we rob from our time of rest to give to our time of work, our body will pay the price over time. If we spend too much time in pleasurable activities our work life and family life may suffer.  Each time we make a decision to be out of balance, there are consequences.  

If you are plagued by stress or anxiety, it would serve you well to take a look at your life and determine where you are out of balance: 

·        What makes you happy?  If you are not including in your life the things that make you happy, you are not in balance.

·        Look at your relationships.  How many toxic people are in your life?  You may want to make some changes

·        How many hours a week are you working and for what return?  Your life is worth investing in areas that will bring you the highest return...whether that be financially or emotionally.

·        Are you resting?  Down time gives us the opportunity to rejuvenate, both physically and emotionally.  It is not an option.

Learn to take care of yourself and the result will be a happier, more productive and more peaceful life.

Being Calm Has Its Advantages

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A calm and undisturbed mind and heart are the life and health of the body, but envy, jealousy and wrath are as rottenness of the bones.  Proverbs 14:30

It is interesting to note that there are many references in the bible to remaining calm.  As a matter of health, stress and anxiety are very destructive to our physical well being.  But one thing I find interesting here, beyond the idea of the effects of these emotions, is that the scripture makes a differentiation between having a calm and undisturbed mind as well as a calm and undisturbed heart.

If we look at the research that the HeartMath Institute has provided regarding the heart and mind, they found it very clear that the heart and mind are separate in function.  They also have indicated that the heart has a "mini brain".  It contains at least 40,000 neurons.  It also has the capacity to control the brain rather than the brain controlling the heart.  Electromagnetically speaking, the heart is much more powerful than the brain.  This is one of the reasons that we find we can change our mind rather easily, but deep, heartfelt belief systems are much more difficult to change.

As this scripture tells us to make sure that we not only calm our stress levels with regard to our minds and hearts, it also tells us several emotions that have an effect on our bones.  Envy, jealousy and anger have detrimental effects on our physical well being.  Why?  Dr. A.F. Beddoe states in his book "Biologic Ionization As Applied to Human Nutrition" that 80% of all illness begins with holding on to negative emotion.  Negative emotion tends to create a more acidic environment in the body which leads to disease and the breakdown of healthy physical functioning.  In this case, the Word specifies the bones.

We must always remember that we were created by a wise and compassionate Creator.  In His instruction book, he would not leave out instructions pertaining to the health and functioning of the wonderful and complex physical bodies that he provided us with.

Related articles

• Turn feelings of envy, jealousy into a positive experience (usatoday.com)
• Soy Is Not Your Friend (solutions4livingwell.blogspot.com)
• The Cost of Stress in the Workplace (livingwellcc.blogspot.com)

Soy Is Not Your Friend

Image via WikipediaAlthough I once thought soy was a great alternative to meat products which often contribute to high cholesterol and other health problems, I have since decided that soy is not the protein substitute I thought it was.  Having had some health issues that may have been linked to an increased soy intake, I decided to do some additional research on the subject and not take conventional wisdom and the idea that everyone in Asia eats soy and has no problems with it.  What I found is that although people in Japan and China eat soy, they don't eat it in mega doses and they don't tend to eat it in the same form that we do in the West.  The kicker for me was when I read that infant formulations containing soy are akin to giving your infant five birth control pills a day....information put out by the Weston A Price Foundation by the way.  This kind of information tends to make one pause and reconsider the idea that soy may be beneficial in the ways that we are ingesting here.

Soy is in everything these days, from infant formula to coffee creamers to meat substitutes.  We were told it was a safe product, that it is a miracle food and that we can eat it without thought to any side effects.  However, I would caution any woman whose body tends to grow extraneous things like cysts, growths, tumors or the like....do your homework on soy and decide for yourself whether it is something you want to be eating.  WAP indicates that soy inhibits pancreatic function and what happens when our pancreas doesn't work right?  You got it....blood sugar issues.  It also increases our need for Vitamin D which many people don't get a lot of as it is.

Image via WikipediaSo, in defense of my stance to nary let another soy product pass my lips, I will offer you the following information - again put out by the Weston A Price Foundation.  As you read through the following material, pay close attention to the information indicating that soy actually blocks the uptake of certain B vitamins and lowers testosterone levels which is of concern to both men and women:

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Myths & Truths About Soy

Myth: Use of soy as a food dates back many thousands of years.

Truth: Soy was first used as a food during the late Chou dynasty (1134-246 BC), only after the Chinese learned to ferment soy beans to make foods like tempeh, natto and tamari.

Myth: Asians consume large amounts of soy foods.

Truth: Average consumption of soy foods in Japan and China is 10 grams (about 2 teaspoons) per day. Asians consume soy foods in small amounts as a condiment, and not as a replacement for animal foods.

Myth: Modern soy foods confer the same health benefits as traditionally fermented soy foods.

Truth: Most modern soy foods are not fermented to neutralize toxins in soybeans, and are processed in a way that denatures proteins and increases levels of carcinogens.

Myth: Soy foods provide complete protein.

Truth: Like all legumes, soy beans are deficient in sulfur-containing amino acids methionine and cystine. In addition, modern processing denatures fragile lysine.

Myth: Fermented soy foods can provide vitamin B₁₂ in vegetarian diets.

Truth: The compound that resembles vitamin B₁₂ in soy cannot be used by the human body; in fact, soyfoods cause the body to require more B₁₂

Myth: Soy formula is safe for infants.

Truth: Soy foods contain trypsin inhibitors that inhibit protein digestion and affect pancreatic function. In test animals, diets high in trypsin inhibitors led to stunted growth and pancreatic disorders. Soy foods increase the body's requirement for vitamin D, needed for strong bones and normal growth. Phytic acid in soy foods results in reduced bioavailabilty of iron and zinc which are required for the health and development of the brain and nervous system. Soy also lacks cholesterol, likewise essential for the development of the brain and nervous system. Megadoses of phytoestrogens in soy formula have been implicated in the current trend toward increasingly premature sexual development in girls and delayed or retarded sexual development in boys.

Myth: Soy foods can prevent osteoporosis.

Truth: Soy foods can cause deficiencies in calcium and vitamin D, both needed for healthy bones. Calcium from bone broths and vitamin D from seafood, lard and organ meats prevent osteoporosis in Asian countries—notsoy foods.

Myth: Modern soy foods protect against many types of cancer.

Truth: A British government report concluded that there is little evidence that soy foods protect against breast cancer or any other forms of cancer. In fact, soy foods may result in an increased risk of cancer.

Myth: Soy foods protect against heart disease.

Truth: In some people, consumption of soy foods will lower cholesterol, but there is no evidence that lowering cholesterol improves one's risk of having heart disease.

Myth: Soy estrogens (isoflavones) are good for you.

Truth: Soy isoflavones are phyto-endocrine disrupters. At dietary levels, they can prevent ovulation and stimulate the growth of cancer cells. Eating as little as 30 grams (about 4 tablespoons) of soy per day can result in hypothyroidism with symptoms of lethargy, constipation, weight gain and fatigue.

Myth: Soy foods are safe and beneficial for women to use in their postmenopausal years.

Truth: Soy foods can stimulate the growth of estrogen-dependent tumors and cause thyroid problems. Low thyroid function is associated with difficulties in menopause.

Myth: Phytoestrogens in soy foods can enhance mental ability.

Truth: A recent study found that women with the highest levels of estrogen in their blood had the lowest levels of cognitive function; In Japanese Americans tofu consumption in mid-life is associated with the occurrence of Alzheimer's disease in later life.

Myth: Soy isoflavones and soy protein isolate have GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status.

Truth: Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) recently withdrew its application to the FDA for GRAS status for soyisoflavones following an outpouring of protest from the scientific community. The FDA never approved GRAS status for soy protein isolate because of concern regarding the presence of toxins and carcinogens in processed soy.

Myth: Soy foods are good for your sex life.

Truth: Numerous animal studies show that soy foods cause infertility in animals. Soy consumption enhances hair growth in middle-aged men, indicating lowered testosterone levels. Japanese housewives feed tofu to their husbands frequently when they want to reduce his virility.

Myth: Soy beans are good for the environment.

Truth: Most soy beans grown in the US are genetically engineered to allow farmers to use large amounts of herbicides.

Myth: Soy beans are good for developing nations.

Truth: In third world countries, soybeans replace traditional crops and transfer the value-added of processing from the local population to multinational corporations.

Soy Infant Formula: Birth Control Pills for Babies

Babies fed soy-based formula have 13,000 to 22,000 times more estrogen compounds in their blood than babies fed milk-based formula. Infants exclusively fed soy formula receive the estrogenic equivalent (based on body weight) of at least five birth control pills per day.

Male infants undergo a "testosterone surge" during the first few months of life, when testosterone levels may be as high as those of an adult male. During this period, baby boys are programmed to express male characteristics after puberty, not only in the development of their sexual organs and other masculine physical traits, but also in setting patterns in the brain characteristic of male behavior.

In animals, soy feeding indicates that phytoestrogens in soy are powerful endocrine disrupters. Soy infant feeding reduces testosterone levels in male marmoset monkeys as much as 70% and cannot be ignored as a possible cause of disrupted development patterns in boys, including learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder. Male children exposed to DES, a synthetic estrogen, had testes smaller than normal on maturation.

Almost 15 percent of white girls and 50 percent of African-American girls show signs of puberty, such as breast development and pubic hair, before the age of eight. Some girls are showing sexual development before the age of three. Premature development of girls has been linked to the use of soy formula and exposure to environmental estrogen-mimickers such as PCBs and DDE.

Animal studies indicate that consumption of more than minimal amounts of phytoestrogens during pregnancy may have adverse affects on the developing fetus, the timing of puberty later in life, and thinking and behavior patterns, especially in male offspring.

For a full list of references and further information on the dangers of modern soy products visit our Soy Alert! section or go to www.soyonlineservice.co.nz.

Confused About Soy?--Soy Dangers Summarized

• High levels of phytic acid in soy reduce assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking. High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children.
• Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders. In test animals soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth.
• Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.
• Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.
• Vitamin B₁₂ analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body's requirement for B₁₂.
• Soy foods increase the body's requirement for vitamin D.
• Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein.
• Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.
• Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods.
• Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys.

You can go here to download a brochure containing this information to give to your friends and family:

 http://www.westonaprice.org/soy-alert/927-soy-alert-brochure?qh=YToxOntpOjA7czozOiJzb3kiO30%3D

Related articles

• Soy Sad: The New USDA Guidelines (liberationwellnessblog.com)
• Healthy 4 Life: Dietary Guidelines from the Weston A. Price Foundation (restoringwellness.wordpress.com)
• Soy is widely regarded as a health food in the United States is a perfect example of how a brilliant marketing strategy can fool millions (healthisahabit.wordpress.com)

Stand and Never Yield

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I ask that you indulge me today.  A day that is sad for everyone but a day that I am learning is quickly being forgotten by individuals who are younger than myself.  I have had conversations with these people who ask, why do we have to keep going through this, why do we need to keep looking at these pictures and hearing about this?  I guess I would have to say that if you need to ask, that is reason enough.

The following is a story from a book entitled "Warriors" edited by Loren Christensen.  It is a compilation of stories about heroes and bravery.  Even though today is a day that we hear many heroic encounters of events, I believe this is one of the ones that has touched me and I would like to share it with you.

STAND AND NEVER YIELD

How Rick Rescorla Saved 2,700 Lives on 9-11

by Dan Hill

(as told to Fred McBee)

Rick Rescorla predicted 9-11.  He also predicted the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.  It is a matter of record.  Rescorla was the vice president for security for Dean Witter Corporation when he foresaw the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993.  Two years before this first attack, he predicted it would be a truck bomb exploding in the unsecured basement parking area.  He went to the New York/New Jersey Port Authority with his warnings and was told to "be concerned with the security of the 40 floors that Dean Witter leases from us and leave the rest to us".  Dean Witter/Morgan Stanley received about one-quarter billion dollars in settlement fees for the Port Authority's negligence in failing to heed the informed warnings of the coming 1993 attack.  

Still ignorant, arrogant, and flat-out stupid, the Port Authority and Dean Witter/Morgan Stanley refused to heed Rescorla's second warning - a very specific warning - that another attack was coming - this time from the air - in the form of commercial aircraft.  Rescorla was a hair off.  He thought it would be cargo aircraft out of Europe or the Middle East loaded with explosives.

Asked by his superiors what could be done to prevent such an attack, Rescorla replied, "Nothing.  Get out of this building.  It's nothing but a big, soft target.  And they intend to hit us again.  Move across the river to New Jersey.  Build, buy, or rent a group of low-rise buildings.  Spread out into smaller targets.  In this computer age we could do our business from the middle of North Dakota.  We don't need Wall Street anymore."

How does a man come to posses this ability to so accurately predict future events?  He had no crystal ball.  He was not clairvoyant.  He was a professional in the arts of intelligence, security, and counterguerrilla warfare.  He had spent his entire life centered on these things.  Over a lifetime, Rescorla accumulated knowledge and experience that allowed him to know how, when, why, and where his enemy would strike.

Rescorla was born in May 1939 in Hayle, Cornwall, England.  His childhood memories were of commando raids by British forces, OSS (Office of Strategic Services) operations, and the French Resistance.  As a youth he read about these events, studied them, analyzed them, criticized them - like a Monday morning quarterback.  He was virtually nurtured at the tit of war and special operations.

In his teens he joined the British army, became a paratrooper, and then went into intelligence and led a unit fighting guerillas and insurgents in Cyprus.  Then he went to Africa  Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), where he fought more guerrillas and insurgents.  After that, he joined the London police force as a member of the Scotland Yard Flying Squad, where he was much involved in anti-IRA operations.  In 1963, he came to the United States and enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private.  In April 1965 he was commissioned as a U.S. officer of infantry out of the OCS course at Fort Benning, Georgia.  Five months later he was commanding a platoon of 44 men in Vietnam with the 2/7th Cavalry Battalion of the 1st Air Cavalry Division.  Two months after that he was one of the most distinguised heroes of the battle of Ia Drang Valley (see the Joe Galloway/Lt Gen. Hal Moore book We Were Soldiers Once...And Young).

After the war, Rescorla left active army service (although he stayed in the National Guard until he retired as a colonel).  In 1967 he became an American citizen.  He had paid his dues.  He went to college at the University of Oklahoma, where he studied literature and writing.  Then he went to law school and became a lawyer.  He taught criminal justice at the University of South Carolina in Columbia for a while, but the academic life was too tame for him.  He went into the banking/financial security business and quickly advanced to the top ranks of his profession.

Over the course of his life, Rescorla developed a corps of men he could rely upon: thinkers, soldiers, politicians, writers, law enforcement officials - second class, politically incorrect, belligerent men who saw things as they actually were and not what they seem to be.  From these he developed his own brain trust - his own intelligence unity, his own staff and group of counselors.  He kept in contact with them by telephone.  He posed questions - hypothetical situations concerning international developments and problems.  He collected, consolidated, and analyzed the input from this net of agents and thus came to logical conclusions.  Some he hired for short periods as consultants.  One, a natural insurgent/guerrilla/warrior, he brought to New York to make an estimate of the situation and the likely plan of attack upon the World Trade Center.  In 1990-91, all this produced the prediction of the 1993 bombing. In 1995-96, it predicted the 2001 air attack.

See?  No horoscope, no crystal ball, no tarot cards, just plain and simple intelligence and professional expertise and logical projection, i.e., "If you want to know what a terrorist is likely to do, just ask a terrorist - or one whose mind works like that of a terrorist."

Now, why was Rick Rescorla a hero on 9-11?  Because after being told by Dean Witter/Morgan Stanley that they could not relocate - that their lease ran to 2005 and maybe after that the move would be possible - Rescorla planned and drilled the Dean Witter/Morgan Stanley staff and employees in the evacuation of the World Trade Center offices that they occupied.  

Despite criticism and intimidation, despite ridicule and denigration, Rescorla forced his people to drill.  Without warning, he'd sound an alarm and then lead the entire company through a mandatory, rapid, efficient, and safe evacuation practice.  They grumbled and they griped, but they did it.

Rescorla installed generators and stair lighting in case of power failure (which came to be).  He assigned office and floor wardens to ensure control and accountability of personnel in evacuating.  Rescorla insisted on buddy teams - people were to go two-y-two down the stairs in an orderly and rapid manner.  Rescorla made sure that elderly and handicapped persons had three or four others to assist them.  And he drilled them - over and over, again and again - until it became a conditioned response, like that of "a soldier going into an antiambush drill." as Rescorla put it.

On the day of the crisis, when the first tower was hit, the Port Authority ordered everyone in the second tower to stay at their desks.  Rescorla made a command decision to countermand that order.  "Bugger that!" he said.  And then he initiated his conditioned response plan.  Evacuation began immediately.

Trained, conditioned, the Dean Witter/Morgan Stanley employees responded.  They implemented Rescorla's plan; 2,700 people followed his drill.  Rescorla was everywhere - the halls, the stairwells - from the 10th to the 70th floor.  His voice could be heard about the near mayhem, keeping everyone calm, responsive, moving in a controlled and orderly manner.  At times he sang to them over his megaphone.  He sang "God Bless America" in that booming deep baritone of his.  And he sag the defiant "Men of Harlech," just as he'd done when the 7th Cavalry was surrounded in the Ia Drang Valley, just as the British army had done when surrounded by the Zulus at Rourke's Drift.

                             Men of Cornwall stop your dreaming;

                             Can't you see their spearpoints gleaming?

                            See their warriors'  pennants streaming

                            To this battlefield.

                            Men of Cornwall stand ye steady;

                            It cannot be ever said ye

                            for the battle were not ready;

                            Stand and never yield!

All but six of Dean Witter/Morgan Stanley's employees survived.  They got out - alive.  They live today.  They live because Rescorla was watching out for them.

Dean Witter/Morgan Stanley was not comprised of its equipment, computers, files, fixtures, furnishings, or potted plants.  It was comprised of its people - those 2,700 individuals, their minds and talents and experience.  When Rescorla saved their lives through his foresight and actions, he also saved the largest financial institution in the nation, in the world, on this earth.

But Rescorla did not survive.  After shepherding the 2,700 out of the building, Rescorla knew there were still a few above - the confused, the disoriented, the inured.  And as everyone who knew Rescorla knows, he would leave no man behind.

An so he went up into that tower of death in an attempt to save them.  He knew it was a forlorn hope.  He knew that he would probably die in his attempt.  But Rescorla was a man who could never live with himself in the future if he did not try to save those few who were left.  So he went up.  And the tower came down.  And Rescorla is no more.

I know this is true.  I was Rescorla's best friend, confidant, and comrade-in-arms throughout our entire adult lives.  I fought with him in Africa, went through OCS at the same time he did, fought in Vietnam with him.  I am the guerrilla/insurgent/terrorist-at-heart he hired as a consultant.  My children called him "Uncle Rick."  My wife thought of him as the brother and sibling she'd never really had.  I was best man at both of his weddings.  From 1970 until his death, we spoke on the telephone three or four times a week.  His children called me "Uncle Dan."  Not by blood or birth but by choice we were brothers.  (For a full account of Rescorla and Hill's legendary exploits and amazing friendship, read Heart of a Soldier by James B. Stewart.)

On 9-11, as he went through that trial, we spoke over the cell phone as things progressed from the initial aircraft hit until he went up looking for the few survivors who may have been left behind.  After he started up, he called his wife, Susan.  His last words to her were, "You made my life."  Susan and I were both watching our TV when Rick's tower went down, taking him and his life with it.

I have wept only one time over the loss of my one true friend, brother, and companion - and that, unfortunately, was on national television while being interviewed by Jane Pauley.  She asked me then if that was the first time I had cried over Rick.  I replied, "Yeah.  I've been too busy being proud of him.  I've been too busy cheering."

I have vowed to never again cry over Rick Rescorla and his death.  It was not an event to weep over.  It was a noble ending for a noble man.  I choose to rejoice in that.  I will continue to cheer.

Such magnificent men are rare.  They appear every few eons or so, and they are a gift to mankind.  Rescorla died the death for which he was destined - standing for the principles of honor, integrity, and valor.  He was a man who considered every man to be as important as himself.  From bush natives in Africa to the barons of Wall Street, he considered every life as valuable as his own.  In the end, he died as he lived - in service to his fellow man.  Like the Good Book says, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"  (John 15:13).

There was no better man in history.  There probably never will be better.  I give you 2,700 survivors of the 9-11 World Trade Center disaster as witnesses.

Related articles

• 'Heart Of A Soldier': An Opera At The Heart Of Sept. 11 (npr.org)
• A Man for All Seasons (nebraskaenergyobserver.wordpress.com)
• 'Heart of a Soldier,' Opera About Rick Rescorla, 9/11 Hero (nytimes.com)
• 9/11 ten years on: Family's pride in British-born Twin Towers hero (mirror.co.uk)