Oleoness Bridging Myth and Reality
How to Reclaim Your Health, Vitality and Zest for Life
OLEONESS is the story of wisdom denied, science re-discovered and health miraculously recovered.
OLEONESS is a state of consciousness that energizes and excites the senses, supports health and delivers a guaranteed dose of oleocanthal, oleacein and other phenolic compounds to those who depend on them for their health and sense of wellbeing.
PEPPERY SENSATION: It began innocently enough in 2005 when a scientist (Gary Beauchamp) recognized the similarity of the pepperiness sensation in the throat of Greek early harvest olive oil and the taste of anti-inflammatory medicine ibuprofen.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY: Could this be the reason ancient doctors like Hippocrates insisted on treating a host of inflammatory conditions with early harvest olive oil? Was this the secret anti-inflammatory compound in olive oil? They named it oleocanthal: “oleo” (olive oil) “canthal” (bite, peppery). Oleocanthal was then extracted from olive oil and they conducted an experiment. They sprinkled pure oleocanthal on cancer cells in a petri dish. The cancer cells died within half hour but the healthy cells were undamaged. Olive oil derived from early harvest Greek olive varieties contain Oleocanthal as the main phenolic compound. Over 90% of Greek olive trees have this unique characteristic Hippocrates called “medicinal”. Now we know the reason.
HEALTH CLAIM: Then came the health claim labelling regulation for polyphenols in olive oil: EU 432/2012. In order to place the health claim on the label, it needed a minimum of 250 mg of specific phenolic compounds or polyphenols per kg of olive oil. But there was no accurate and easy way to quantitatively measure the concentration of each phenolic compound.
SYNCHRONICITY As luck would have it or shall I say providence?
Dr. Prokopios Magiatis and his team of researchers at the Univ. of Athens, in the same month Dec. of 2012 had just completed developing the qNMR method (quantitative Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) a consistent and accurate method to analyze olive oil phenolic compounds. They were about to make their findings public.
IT ALL MADE SENSE: That’s when it showed up in my path and I stopped to take a closer look. During the worst economic crisis since WWII something began to shift in the Greek culture. I could feel something was beginning to stir deep inside the Hellenic collective consciousness. When I left Greece in 1975, I vowed never to return. I felt betrayed. I was a very angry young man. In 1973 at the Polytechnic Univ. the students rose up against the military dictatorship. But very quickly they were brutally attacked by soldiers and police using live amunition and a tank entered the University grounds knocking down the front gate while the students refused to move as they sang the Greek National Anthem. I witnessed Greek soldiers killing pedestrians who offered no threat to them.
One sniper even tried to shoot me as well. On the night of November 16th around 10pm i was walking towards the polytechnic institute because there was too much shooting on Leoforos Alexandras so we had to crcle around to avoid it.
As we tried to cross the street called Averof across from the Polytechnic. See the photo recreating the snipers bullet aimed at my head below. You can see the Polytechnic Univ. in the background.
But we were stopped and told there is a sniper on the building of the Ministry of the Interior at the end of the street and he is shooting anyone who crosses the street.
So I asked in a very confrontational way: “Is he a Greek sniper?” I asked. “Of course he is Greek” the answer came back with a loud hint of exasperation at having to answer my questions.
“Well then I would like to see how a Greek shoots a Greek” I yelled back as I took my fathers arm and placed my body between him and the sniper and we slowly walked across. As we stepped on the other side of the street I heard a loud noise like a bell but nothing happened. I was not hit. We both crossed safely to the other side. We then went up one side of the Polytechnic and made it home with a cab after walking in the alleys for a while trying not to be seen by the soldiers and police on the streets.
After that night evry time I would see the events at the Polytechnic on the news I would tremble uncontrollably. The doctor told me it was from shock stemming from emotional or physical injury.
I realised then and there that I had to go back and cross the street with my father once again. I was an avid reader at a very young age and consumed books like they were a cake. I read C. J. Jung and Freud as well and I gained insights from observing human behaviour around me. No need to go to the jungle I was surrounded by animals who think they are human just becasue they look human.
My hair was very long which was from my hippy culture back in Canada. Without a second thought I told my aunt to cut it off. The police and army were detaining any young men, with long hair, or moustaches, or beards.
I put a shirt and jacket and went to the Polytechnic. It was cleaned up by the time we got there. Streets washed and cleaned.
With these memories of that fateful night we approached to cross Averof street. As we got closer the trembling began… nice bring me all the way down here cut my hair to just tremble across? That is when it happened.
The trembling suddenly stopped we crossed the street without even realizing it. I remember hearing the loud noise turned to my right and so the steel post had a bump and I saw the hole on the other side of the steel post. That is when I realized what exactly happened. He took the shot it was perfect except for the steel post between us… something tried to get through and failed. I felt like being whisked away in a magical carpet to a far-off place where everything is possible and everyone knows it.
That is when my sweet dread showed up… she was always there when I needed her but never offered a helping hand. Instead she does nothing but watch. No different than a spectator in a movie theatre. She would remind me of the 2 young men who upon seeing me and my father safely cross the street, they tried to cross as well. They did not make it. I heard the 2 shots in rapid succession, I turned just in time to see their limp bodies simply drop into the asphalt.
But I was lucky. Others were not. I was planning to stay in Greece and go into the army. I refused to join an army that tortures and kills its own citizens. I chose to leave Greece. I left on a student VISA and vowed never to return. I chose to study ballet. A short 2 years later I succeeded and I actualy danced on the stage of Herod Atticus Theatre, despite beginning my training at 19 years of age.
I NEVER LOOKED BACK: Until 37 years later in 2012 something began to pull me back. It was an irresistible force tugging at the fiber of my soul. Following a number of attempts to resist the call of this siren I relented. This was much bigger than me. It was not about what I vowed to do or where I did not want to live. It was about what was necessary to be done. Fortunately, I was perfectly suited to the task. It has been a mythical battle between light and darkness.
RESISTANCE: There was from the get go a huge resistance from all sectors of the olive oil business to change. Instead of the health claim making them happy it made them angry. I knew this would be a dog fight but I was ready. My revolutionary spirit was still intact. But first it needed a name. I called it OLEONESS. I never thought I would arrive to this moment. I expected to take it up to a certain point and then hand it off to someone else. OLEONESS was my personal little fantasy. I imagined a way for modern humans to integrate and embody ancient Hellenic culture. Not like the modern caricature of: “we invented everything!” “we are the greatest people in the world”. I envisioned and achieved in my own way a more real embodiment.
Knowledge that is embodied does not collapse in a times of crisis. It rises to face its destiny without fear or doubt.
“Oleoness expresses itself by its presence”
OLEONESS: is a state of mind that lies in the timeless now that resides in between the past, and the future. It evokes times of great heroism and courage facing the unknown with undaunted delight. It brings the mysteries of the past into the scientific inquiry and research of today.
HOW EARLY? Olive growers began to harvest their olives earlier and earlier. The levels of oleocanthal in the olive oil increased. The amount of olive oil produced from olives harvested in late August, September, and early October however decreased. The prices skyrocketed for this type of olive oil. But we had a problem. The phenolic compounds were often drastically reduced due to exposure to oxygen and light once the container was opened, or by the high temperature during transportation, storage and display.
WELLNESS BUSINESS: These olive oils were no longer part of the traditional olive oil business. They were now part of the wellness business. They could not be displayed on the same shelf as the spaghetti and the tomato sauce. They required their own temperature controlled cooler unit and a certification program to oversee the quality controls put in place.
COOLER SOLUTION: This will take time to set up and administer. In the meantime there were thousands of buyers who gained benefits of regular consumption of high phenolic olive oil. Some of them suffered from serious conditions.
CANCER PATIENTS: I became one of them. I was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of prostate cancer in 2018. It had already metastasized to the pelvis at the time of diagnosis. That is when I realized the depth of the anguish of these patients who relied on a consistent dose of phenolic compounds every day to ease their symptoms or give them hope for a cure. It was difficult even for me to find a consistently high phenolic concentration in olive oil.
ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: This is how my journey into the world of alternative medicine began. I searched for alternatives. I call it the “The Good the Bad and the Ugly” side of “natural” medicine. I experimented with most of the “miraculous cures” I found on the Internet and recommended by costly assessments at naturopathic clinics in Greece, Canada, and Cyprus. From horse deworming medicine to daily micro-dosing on antibiotics, to baking soda and Vitamin C injections, I tried them all. I refused fasting while drinking my own urine as some urged me with a promise this would cure me.
ADT or CATHETER? I did however have a pure oleocanthal injection into the prostate and into my bloodstream. It was on an experimental basis at a private cancer clinic in Toronto Canada. Results were inconclusive. Ran out of money and could not continue. But 6 years later I am still alive and living with metastatic prostate cancer. I use ADT (Androgen Deprivation Therapy) as intermitent emergency medicine and not as therapy. The problem is when I stop the injections the cancer spreads very quickly increasing the size of the prostate and stopping urination. It also has the real potential to spread to other organs in the body. They tell me that most likely it has already metastasized to other organs. Eventually the cancer cells will adapt and gain the ability to multiply by finding other sources of testosterone.
There is no other way to deal with prostate cancer. It is the worst. No spontaneous remissions for prostate cancer on record…
But I had a more stark choice to make: either ADT injection or a catheter. The ADT injection stops the production of testosterone and since prostate cancer cells feed on testosterone to survive, they quickly die off. Prostate returns to normal size within days.
This is what I have been doing since 2018. My logic says: since the cancer cells when they are starved to death look for other ways to get their food (testosterone). So I bet that if I simply had them fast for a few hours or a day, they would never need to go and look for other sources of testosterone.
BREAKTHROUGH My big breakthrough came when I combined a daily dose of the phenolic compounds in powder form in a capsule along with my morning shot of HP-EVOO. I experienced immediate relief from the negative side effects of ADT such as: tiredness, weakness, low energy, always fighting depression, brittle muscles and tendons. It seemed to take effect much faster than high phenolic olive oil on its own.
I tried the capsule son their own, but I found the effect more pronounced when combined with a shot of High Phenolic EVOO. A shot is a mor nign ritual where you swallow first thing in the morning
RELIEF Now I had the answer: I call it OLEONESS. The best of both worlds. High Phenolic EVOO for the taste and the health benefits and the high phenolic capsules to ensure I was receiving the appropriate dose of phenols for drastically reducing the side effects of ADT (Androgen Deprivation Therapy).
Next Chapter: Becoming a Dancer in a New York Minute
