Constantly as we open a newspaper, watch the TV news or look on the Internet, we see a health related story that focuses narrowly on a disease, a new drug or some other wonder cure. Week in week out. How often do you read advice and information on the total picture for the majority of people like you and me who are half healthy? The majority of the population, especially in the western world, is not subject to serious disease only displaying symptoms of aging. This can apply to the emotional state as well as our physical and mental state. In our half healthy state, we mostly manage to get to work and take a little exercise and be reasonably happy. If things get a little worse, we may go to see the doctor who will likely prescribe some drug rather than investigate our lifestyle and diet. Can we move from Half Healthy to Healthy and extend our lifespan? To address this question, we need to understand a bit about our bodies. Dr Ron Rosedale, a world renowned expert, spoke of his description of human existance and our relationship with nature. Basically, from Nature's viewpoint, we should be efficient reproductive machines in order to perpetuate the species. Once we have passed the period of life when we are at our natural reproductive peak, according to Dr Rosedale, "nature no longer cares about us". Our bodies will have become expendable with no useful purpose to serve. Our bodies are expendable in the natural cycle. We would rather hope that this is not the case. Hopefully we will at least reach our biblical age of three score and ten. However, our physiology is apparently capable of living to at least one hundred and twenty. If longevity is what we want then, we will need to take care of ourselves somewhat better than we do! Is life just a series of calculated risks? In order to enable us to reproduce, nature takes some calculated risks. For example, nature does not worry too much about the long term effects that oxygen has on our bodies. Oxidative stress (as formulated in Harman's free radical theory of aging) is likely to contribute to the aging process. The worst effects of oxidation are likely to occur in later life, well after our reproductive peak. Now consider the result of high insulin levels in our bodies; the affects down the years will reduce longevity, but not whilst we are relatively young. Then there are the calculated risks we take ourselves. Smoking, high alcohol consumption, poor diet, over reliance on pharmaceutical drugs etc. Wether you are surprised or not to see the last one, it is true that many thousands of people worldwide have their lifespan reduced by the effects of pharmaceutical drugs and their misuse. Of course, the life shortening effects of banned substances and the additional pain, suffering and crime they cause, are well known. What are the symptoms of aging we should look out for? Well, the symptoms are Cancer, Heart Disease, Stroke, Diabetes, Obesity, High Blood Pressure, etc. etc. Are you surprised? These "serious" diseases are signs of aging which are often induced by our personal treatment of our bodies. The bad news is, if we rely solely on the medical profession to help us we are more likely to perish younger than we should! Why the medical profession can't have all the answers! According to Dr Mercola MD and many other sources concur, "70% of what medical students learn soon becomes out of date. So they have to keep learning". It is possible that at least three quarters of the sources of learning e.g. medical journals and reports, are produced or funded by pharmaceutical companies who are more interested in corporate profits than the welfare of patients. They don't want patients to die, just take their drugs for a long time. Confined to being half healthy! Drugs can be extremely effective in some cases to get the body back from the brink of serious trouble. However, long term use should be avoided if possible due to the other effects of most drugs. If your concern is one of nutrition, don't ask your Doctor! Apart from a few enlightened souls who realize the importance of nutrition, medical students are not taught the importance that nutrition has on health. We need to take control for our health ourselves. Combating Half Healthiness is not that difficult with the right information. The necessity is for us to become a little knowledgeable in these areas. The physical food we need - nutrition. The mental food - techniques for mental health and the exercise and good sleep our bodies thrive with. With this package of information, you can be fully healthy, happy and wise. As Hippocrates is much quoted as saying, "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food!"
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