Alan Smith
October 2007 - Britney Porter

They say you can’t “unbreak the mirror” because the damage is done. But Plano author Alan Smith says you can

Unbreak Your Health

 It was in the dead of winter in Rochester, Minnesota, and the doctor’s words were colder than the gust of wind outside. “I have good news and bad news. The good news is it’s not going to kill you. The bad news is you’re not going to like it, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Before visiting the Mayo Clinic, Alan Smith saw two doctors in Plano and a top specialist in Dallas, but nobody had any answers. There had to be something he could do. He had an awful digestive problem and was in extreme pain. And he was 53 – a baby boomer – he wasn’t about to take ‘no’ for an answer.

“The Mayo Clinic is the finest medical institution in the world,” said Alan, “but all these thousands of dollars and this is what I get? A medical joke?”

Weeks later and still frustrated, he stumbled upon Bruce Lipton’s book Biology of Belief. “Bruce is a cellular biologist. His work shows that you can take the nucleus or ‘brain’ out of a cell, and the cell doesn’t die. In fact, it can live for months later, and it moves; it eats; it grows. You alter its behavior in no way.”

The bottom line is, as Bruce Lipton would say, receptors on a cell’s membrane activate a behavior when a cell comes into contact with an environment.

 “Bruce discovered that our perception of our environment, the energy of our thoughts, feelings, and attitudes, change cellular function,” said Alan. “When you realize your beliefs can change your biology at the cellular level, that opens up a whole world of possibility!”

Enter the world of complementary and alternative therapies. Unbreak Your Health introduces more than 100 complementary and alternative therapies from aromatherapy, acupuncture, and massage to music and art therapy, reflexology, and magnetic therapy. The book, not an end-all, equips you with resources for finding your own answers toward a healthier life. And it begins, with a new attitude.

“The right attitude can improve your health,” said Alan. “When you’re really excited about a project, you can hardly sleep and you don’t eat, but you feel 110 percent. And when you’re depressed or things are challenging, you catch every bug that’s going around. That’s the short version of the long term, psychoneuroimmunology. What you think changes you at the physical level.”

While pharmaceutical companies rake in $279 billion a year – that’s a lot to swallow – modern medicine, according to the author, treats the symptoms and not the source of the problem.

“We have such a passive attitude toward health in this country. We expect somebody else to take care of us. I’ll go to the doctor; he‘ll give me a pill; I’ll get surgery. Well, I had a condition where they couldn’t do surgery and there weren’t any magic pills.

“Every year, America spends 16 percent of its gross domestic product on healthcare, more than any other nation on the face of the earth! But what we’re doing is clearly not working. Look at our obesity levels.”

It’s true. We live in a “Supersize Me” world where dieting books abound. But Unbreak Your Health isn’t a dieting book. Said Alan, “There are many books on diets from Atkins to Zone, but there are fewer books on complementary and alternative therapies. Whether you have run out of medical options, or you want something more natural, this book is a good overview, a short course.

“Holistic philosophy studies the whole being,” Alan continued. “What you think and feel changes your body physically. If my thoughts and feelings control my cells, then there are ways that we can control illnesses and physical problems.”

In Bruce Lipton’s book, Alan discovered PSYCH-K®, or Psychological Kinesiology, a muscle-testing technique used to distinguish positive and negative beliefs in your subconscious. A person stands with his or her arm out to the side and says a true or false statement. If it is true, he or she will lock their arm against resisting pressure (a positive response). If it’s false, the person’s arm will fall to the side (a weak response). The test, according to Alan, may help individuals reprogram subconscious beliefs, thus change their perception on life and improve their health.

At least that’s what happened for Alan. Now at 56 years old, he’s living healthier than ever with his wife, Chris, a Spanish teacher and the Department Chair for Foreign Language at Plano East Senior High. Alan has lived in Plano for 15 years. He promotes his book full time, tapping radio stations across the country for an opportunity to share his experience with complementary and alternative therapy. One of his key messages is personal responsibility. “We have to take responsibility for our lives because nobody else can. Who better to take care of your body than you?”

Excerpt from the Introduction
Perhaps one of the reasons for the explosive growth and popularity of complementary and alternative therapies is the appreciation of a person as much more than just a number on a form. Every person is a unique individual composed of mind, body and spirit. All facets must be healthy and balanced for wellness and personal growth.

... Complementary and alternative therapies focus on individualized treatments, rather than assembly-line medicine. ... These therapies tend to look at the whole person for the source of the problem, not just the symptoms that bring them in the door.

Everything in this book will work for someone, but nothing in this book will work for everyone. ... Remember, you are in charge of your health!

Signing set for Borders in Plano
October is Health Literacy Month and Alan Smith will be speaking and signing his book at Borders on Preston Road in Plano on Tuesday, October 16 at 7 p.m. He will also be speaking at the Wellness Expo in Addison on Sunday, October 21. For more information, visit www.unbreakyourhealth.com.