The Foundations of Health: A Recipe to Wellness
Find balance in these key areas to help fight disease and improve your quality of life.
In a country where solutions to health issues are often pharmaceuticals and surgery, it’s not hard to see why many Americans feel frustration and helplessness about their medical problems. Allopathic or Western practitioners have a tendency to neglect the underlying causes of disease and disorder and focus primarily on resolving symptoms. This is where allopathic providers tend to come up short. Since they’re trained to focus primarily on the physical manifestations of disease like signs and symptoms, they often neglect causes related to things like lifestyle, spirituality and mental state.
This model of healthcare has resulted in a system that is not surprisingly failing to reduce the ever-growing rates of chronic disease creating a health crisis for Americans.
Diseases like asthma, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, diabetes and cancer have devastating effects on quality of life for the afflicted, their families and the economy. Shockingly, according to the CDC, 6 in 10 adults have been diagnosed with a chronic disease and nearly 90% of the nation’s healthcare spending, a whopping $4.1 trillion, is to address chronic disease.1
Yes. You read that correctly - 60% of adults and $4.1 trillion!
These aren’t exactly the stats you’d expect out of a medical system that boasts being the best in the world. Compound that grim report with how poorly things have gone recently for allopathic medicine in the drastic failed handling of Covid-19, it’s no wonder why more and more Americans have lost trust in its ability to effectively address chronic disease. Americans everywhere are actively rejecting this failed model and seeking health and wellness providers outside of the allopathic system that address all aspects of disease - mind, body and spirit.
Now, in defense of allopathic medicine, and as a longtime medic, I have to remind you that the failures noted here are primarily in relation to chronic disease. Allopathic medicine does however, have many positive aspects. For example, specialties like Genetics, Obstetrics, Emergency and Critical Care are arguably some of the best in the world and sometimes things like surgery or pharmaceuticals are necessary to address a particular concern. But when it comes to chronic disease in general, the numbers speak for themselves.
The Foundations of Health: A Recipe to Wellness
Ok enough of the bad news….lets get to the solutions. How can we tackle this crisis?
Fortunately a bulk of the chronic diseases plaguing Americans can be delayed, prevented or alleviated through simple foundational lifestyle changes. For example, according to the CDC, some of the key risk factors for chronic disease include easily addressed issues like poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, abuse of alcohol and the use of tobacco.2 Choosing to minimize these risks factors can drastically limit your chances of being afflicted with chronic disease and improve your quality of life - keeping at bay a destiny of hospital visits, drugs and side effects.
By putting in the effort to make healthful choices everyday, we start to take control of our own health and stop having to rely on a system that too often just makes things worse.
This article is the first in a series entitled The Foundations of Health: A Recipe to Wellness inspired by my natural health training with Trinity School of Natural Health. This series will provide people with information and resources in relation to each of the nine health foundations. These foundations are relevant to people of all ages and a great place to start when addressing any health or wellness concern. Each foundation is a fundamental area of life that when optimized and balanced, greatly improves overall health and quality of life.
The following are the nine foundational areas that will be highlighted in this series:
Clean Air and Breathing
Clean and Sufficient Water
Nutritious Food
Regular Sunlight
Regular Exercise
Optimal Rest
Balanced Emotions
Body and Energy Work
Spiritual Work
The 80/20 Rule
Throughout this series I am going to provide you with relevant information, resources, and advice on how to make proper choices related to each of the foundations.
To take control of and optimize our health, we should integrate into our life and opt for as much healthful choices as possible. Even expanding to things like cleaning supplies and hygiene products making sure to use ones that aren’t loaded with toxins. Of course, this is the ideal scenario, and we are human right? Sometimes your all-time favorite candy bar is too much to resist, and you just can’t part with your favorite perfume.
Well, there’s hope! One great piece of guidance I must share that should help you deal with this conflict is to remember the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule is based on the Pareto Principle, or the principle of effectiveness which can be applied to many disciplines, such as nutrition and health.3 So basically how the 80/20 rule works is - as long as 80% of your lifestyle choices are to your benefit, your body should be able to offset the 20% of your choices that are detrimental. So that candy bar you treated yourself with or that perfume spritz you took can be acceptable if the bulk of your other choices (80%) are healthful. It’s simple actions like these that make all the difference when it comes to optimizing our health - mind, body and soul - from now and into the future and help keep you away from a destiny of disease, drugs and surgery.
To Health and Freedom - The Holistic Medic
NOTE: This is the first in a series titled Foundations of Health that will provide readers with information, resources and advice on how to optimize each of the nine foundations, make healthful choices and take control of their health.
EXCELLENT, MUCH NEEDED report, concisely stated, thank you!