If you've watched the news lately you
are constantly flooded with higher rates of diseases like cancer, heart disease, autism, and
many other auto-immune diseases. It
seems like doctors are extremely busy with all these diagnosis and treatment
plans for their never ending number of ill patients. Scientists are constantly working on the new
miracle drug to cure cancer or autism.
Don’t get me wrong it is important that they are trying to cure these
dreaded diseases but this should be our last resort for those cases that were
unpreventable. The problem is too little
attention gets paid to why the rise in these diseases in the first place. What if we could dramatically decrease the
prevalence of these diseases? Not with
frequent doctor visits and tons of tests and some miracle drug but rather with
a proper diet and an active lifestyle.
I’m not talking about an hour four times a week at your local globo-gym
but rather a lifestyle of movement and physical tasks. I’m not a scientist but I have done my fair
share of research and have first-hand experience.
Inactivity and consumption of
processed foods, grains (pasta, bread even whole wheat, oatmeal etc. etc.), and some diary can be detrimental to your health. Obviously smoking and excessive alcohol
consumption also has a negative impact on our health. I’m going to assume everyone is aware of this
so I’m not going to discuss it although the effects can be similar. Anyways, these foods weren’t a part of our
diet for more than 99% of human existence.
What does this mean? Our bodies
haven’t adapted and are struggled to cope with our less nutritious modern
diet. Every time you consume that greasy
burger with French fries and a soda you’re putting a chink in your armor. You may be lucky and never see any blatant
side effects from your poor diet but you’d be the exception. Also just because you may not eat much fast food and processed foods and you exercise, and are at a healthy body weight doesn't necessarily mean your healthy. There are many other foods that many people don't realize are negatively affecting their health. Also activity to be healthy is more than just going to the gym a couple days a week because this doesn't offset the issue that your probably sitting 8 hours a day at your job. Our bodies are these amazing machines that
put up with whatever you throw at them to a certain point and then it says enough
and stops functioning properly. Perfect example
is type II diabetes which is when your body stops properly utilizing insulin
from the years of a poor diet high in carbohydrates and physical inactivity. Insulin acts as a counter balance to keep
your blood glucose levels normal and not too high. Your body has created an insulin resistance
and your pancreas kick into overdrive to produce more insulin but that only
lasts so long. Your body is now unable to
produce enough insulin to keep your blood glucose levels normal. Essentially your body was sick of dealing with
years of your sugar-laden diet, inactivity, and carrying around fifty extra
pounds. Now there are some cases of type
ll diabetes that may just happen and it wasn’t your fault and your body just
failed you which again would be the exception and not the majority.
Making poor diet and lifestyle
decisions is just chipping away at your body armor. There will be a day when your armor becomes
to damaged and it stops functioning properly and this is when your screwed. The potential for a serious health problem
here is very high. There are foreign invaders that are constantly trying to get
through our armor but when the body is functioning properly we are well
equipped to handle these invaders because our bodies have built immunities to
them. The problem is when you put all
these chinks in your armor your essentially weakening your body’s defense
mechanisms. This is when our body can no
longer tolerate or put up with these invaders.
It is that bullet that finally penetrates through the armor that opens
you up to many serious health issues.
The point I’m trying to make is to
take care of your body before you have developed these health issues. Doctor’s main purpose should be preventative
not reactive. What do I mean by this?
They should be better educated when it comes to nutrition and giving advice to
living a healthy lifestyle rather than reacting to diseases by prescribing
drugs. Yes medication may be necessary
when the patient has the disease but the majority of the cases are preventable. At the end of the day your health is largely
up to the decisions you make. So do
yourself a favor and skip the drive-thru dinner and go make a nutritious dinner made with real whole foods. Get your old running
shoes from the garage and wipe the cobwebs off and put them to good use. There comes a time when everyone wants to let
loose eat something a little unhealthy and have some adult beverages. You should reward yourself with a weekend
evening night here and there but only if you’ve made the right decisions time
and time again Monday thru Friday.
