Creating A Life in Balance

Barbara Voisen was a successful businesswoman with no time for herself and her own needs. Today, an all-around regimen of diet, supplements, meditation and exercise makes the future look bright.

Barbara Voisen, a 48-year-old resident of Newport Beach, Calif., has never been short on drive. She has had a hugely successful career in sales in which she broke new ground for women, set sales records wherever she went and reaped significant financial rewards in the process.

But it also almost killed her.

In the mid 1980s, Voisen was pushing herself so hard as a manager for a savings and loan bank that she would typically arrive for work at 6 a.m. on one day and not leave until the following afternoon. In 1989, by the time she moved on to head the wholesale division of a mortgage banking company, she was working 20 hours a day, seven days a week. In her workaholic frenzy, she didn't have time to go for a walk, compose a healthy diet plan or reflect on her lifestyle.

One day, giving in to an impulse she still can't explain, she picked up a copy of Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw's groundbreaking book, Life Extension: A Practical Scientific Approach, and read the section on the immune system twice. The idea that she could extend her healthy, productive years by following a supplement regimen struck a chord.

"This was when I was working all night, not getting exercise and not eating well and I believe it was my supplemental regimen that kept me alive," says Voisen. "It was the only thing I did religiously."

But opening her life to the healing power of nutritional and vitamin supplements gave her more than just a physical boost. It also encouraged her to reevaluate her entire lifestyle. After all, if she really wanted a better quality of life, were 20-hour workdays helping? Gradually she began experimenting with meditation, exercise, diet and her spiritual outlook. Focusing on these components led her to scale back her professional responsibilities and learn to relax.

Voisen's regimen includes nutrients and supplements, such as morning dosages of Life Extension Herbal Mix at breakfast, followed by vitamins C, B-complex, E and A, plus Cognitex and DMAE, ginseng, coenzyme Q10 and DHEA. At lunchtime, Voisen loads up on six tablets of Chitosan, and two EPA capsules for healthy cells. Before her meal she takes citrichrome, ginseng, CoQ10, kyolic garlic and aspirin for her heart. She also alternates one month on super enzymes with one month on ginger.

At dinnertime, it's more vitamin capsules and CoQ10. In the evening she takes one to three milligrams of melatonin and acetyl-L-carnitine.

Quality of Life

Then there's exercise. Voisen works out with a personal trainer for the right blend of cardiovascular work and weight conditioning. Three to five times a week she jumps on a trampoline, jogs or uses the treadmill, and once or twice a week she lifts weights for toning and muscle strengthening. She also plays a lot of tennis, and loves in-line skating and dancing. Voisen avoids overdoing the fats, and has cut out red meat and cheese to keep her daily fat intake at 9 to 12 grams. Throughout the day she drinks water and cranberry juice.

A main ingredient in her well-rounded lifestyle is meditation, which she does every day for as long as an hour. She has created a quiet corner to meditate with a special chair pointed toward the view of an undeveloped stretch along the bay in Newport Beach.

"I quiet my mind, then I let things come to me," she notes. "Sometimes I ask a question and wait for an answer. It all comes down to the mind, body and soul connection."

Achieving that connection has put her in the best shape of her life. At her last check-up, her doctor told her she can expect to live at least 10 to 12 years longer than other members of her age cohort. She reports a low cholesterol level, a low resting heart rate, low blood pressure and a low percentage of body fat.

She recently accepted a position as a consultant to create a training program for other sales representatives. These days Voisen likes the idea of helping other people learn to do something that she knows well. And she's down to 40 to 45 hours of work a week. Of course, she's still full of energy, but now it's more positively directed, she says.

"I'm up between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., and it's go, go, go," notes Voisen. "But it's not nervous energy, just feeling good and peaceful." And, while she could easily rest on her own professional laurels, she's finding her balanced lifestyle encourages her to look ahead. She wants to create an intermediate training program for sales representatives, and focus on helping other women achieve some of the successes that have come her way.

"I would like to go into motivational speaking," she says. "I want to help women who have skills and want to get ahead."

There are plenty of other things out there that Voisen still wants to try. She recently went skydiving for the first time and is planning an African safari. "I think I'm a good example," she says, "of a 48-year-old person who sees how much more there is to life."

-Twig Mowatt

TO: The Honorable ____________________
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C., 20515

Dear Congressional Representative:

The Consumer Health Free Speech Act, recently introduced into the House by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), is needed to preserve freedom of choice in health care in the United States. This will help Americans learn about the scientific advances in nutrition occurring today by allowing truthful health claims for foods and dietary supplements. The bill proposes the following changes:

FIRST: The present definition of the term "drug" in the Food Drug & Cosmetic Act (FDCA) is so overly broad that it includes foods, herbs and dietary supplements. The present flawed definition reads: "The term 'drug' means articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man . . ."

Congressman Paul's bill would add three words, "other than food," immediately following the word "articles," so that it would read:

"The term 'drug' means articles, other than food, intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease in man . . ."

Adding these three words would exempt all foods (which includes herbs and other dietary supplements) from being regulated as drugs by the FDA. It would also prevent the FDA from banning truthful health claims based upon scientific evidence for these foods simply because they haven't been approved as "drug" claims by the FDA.

Scientific research in nutrition has shown that herbs and other dietary supplements are safe and effective in preventing many diseases. However, the flawed definition of the term drug makes it a federal crime for the dietary supplement industry to give this truthful information to consumers in labeling herbs or other dietary supplements.

SECOND: Wording in section 403 of the FDCA gives the FDA excessive powers over herbs and dietary supplements. It proclaims, "A food shall be deemed to be misbranded if its labeling is false or misleading in any particular . . ."

The Consumer Health Free Speech Act would change "false or misleading" to "false and misleading." Changing the "or" to "and" will set a higher and fairer standard that the FDA must meet before limiting or banning the sale of herbs or other dietary supplements by claiming they present an unreasonable "risk."

Name ___________________________ Date_________________

Address________________________________________________

City ________________________________________ State_____

Zip ___________________