In my last two articles I have discussed in some detail the effects of pot smoking and what you, as a singer, can do to heal your body of the side effects of such a negetive habit. This month I've decided to continue the subject of healing but in a slightly different light.

If you have been following my articles at all, you know that much of the material I cover concerns self-help and self-care for the signer. That is, in fact, the premise for this particular column. I feel there is a blackhole in the media when it comes to this subject. The singer, like the majority of our population, is so in the dark about self-care that it is disgraceful. The first thing people think when the body shows symtoms they don't understand is, "What drug should I take?"

Our culture is so drug-oriented that we have totally lost touch with our own ability to heal ouselves. Last week one of my students came in with a headache and asked me for aspirin. I told him I didn't have any and that I hadn't even bought any in about five years. Instead, I proceeded to massage his neck, head and the parts of his back and abdomen that were in spasm. His headache went away and he was amazed. How could a simple ten minute message remove a headache that he had been suffering with all day? My question is: Why should that be such an amazing event?

I have gone out of my way to find information that will help me in my work -the training and healing of singers. And that is precisely the problem. I have really had to "go out of my way". When you consider that good health is our single most precious possession, why are we kept so totally in the dark? Actually, it comes as no suprise given the sad state of channels of information on self-healthcare.

All to often singers come into the studio and talk about their bodies as if they were talking about a foreign object. As part of my work in training people to sing, I attempt to teach the whole person about their whole body.

I am a product of the sixties, a time when the health food store came into its own. Up until that time health food stores were considered strange, unavailable places, only frequented by "health nuts". As if to say that a person who actively pursued their own health was nuts. How strange that drug taking and drinking and eating foods covered with insecticides and filled with chemicals you can't even pronounce is considered 'normal' but eating raw foods and natural grains, seeds and nuts is looked upon as way-out and bizarre. Even when they do know where the local health food store is, most people are so overwhelmed when they enter one that they can't benefit from what is there.

My first suggestion to you as a singer who knows the importance of good health, is to read. There are so many books filled with information for you to devour that I would have to write several more colums just to cover all the titles. I will tell you, however, that most health food stores also carry a line of books on health and this is the first place you should look.

As any of my students could tell you, I own many books on the subject of health and I recommend that you begin to collect your own information. Viktoras Kulvinskas and Marcia Acciardo are the authors of two informative books, Survival Into The Twentieth Century and Eating Light For Survival. Dr. N.W. Walker has written several books on fresh vegetables and fruit juices and also a book filled with salad recipes. Dr. Bernard Jensen has written numerous books on Nature's remedies and self-help through proper eating.

Other authors to look for include Gary Null, Adele Davis, Jethro Kloss, Carlton Fredricks, Frances Lappe and Richard Hittleman. There is practically a book written on every subject -Yoga, Shiatru, massage, healing your own body, herb usuage, fasting, vitamins, sprouts, cookbooks of all kinds, etc., etc., etc., -most of this information can be found in health food stores.

I feel it is time for people to come out of the darkness of ignorance and into the light of self-healthcare. If you go to stores like The Health Emporium in Queens, the Integral Yoga Center and Health Nuts in Manhattan or any number of places in the metropolitan area, you will find a whole new world of healthcare available to you. Knowledge will give you the power to be the master of your health.

See you next month!