I am sure you have heard now a days the term preventative healthcare. What does that mean anyways? For me it means the body’s ability to maintain optimal health through a strong immune system and a reduction of stress and inflammation. Essentially, prevent disease before it happens.
Our immune systems are the forces that fights off infections and foreign invaders to keep our body from getting sick. The stronger the defense the more protected we are. So how do we keep our entire bodies healthy?
This is where the holistic approach comes in focusing on mind body and sprit, the whole person. All of our systems are interconnected and affect/ communicate to each other through chemical and electrical signals. To keep our bodies healthy it actually is not over complicated. To survive we need food, air, and water. To thrive we need adequate sleep, sunlight, clean water, oxygen, good nutrition, exercise, low stress & prayer/meditation. Maintaining a proper Ph balance in your body is also important. I will cover all these more in depth in future posts.
Nutrition is so important for everyone. The typical American diet is high in animal products, processed and refined foods, sugar and GMO foods. Most people are over fed and under nourished, with low fiber and high omega 6s and low omega 3s. We have high incidences of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and many other chronic diseases that keep us from feeling our best. What we decide to eat each meal either harms or helps us. Food is meant to nourish us and sustain life by fueling our bodies with the proper nutrients, amino acids, phytochemicals, vitamins & minerals. Good food heals us, bad food harms us.
We take pills for high blood pressure & cholesterol without giving diet much of a thought. Why not? The reasons for many of our diseases are caused from our bad diets and poor lifestyle choices. Genetics don’t play as much of a role as once thought. It is so important, now more than ever to eat whole foods that are as natural and unprocessed as possible. This can help keep our bodies healthy and free from oxidative stress and inflammation. Especially because we live in such a toxic and polluted world filled with chemicals we are constantly exposed to.
We live in a world full of stress which continually stimulates the production of cortisol, the stress hormone. While this may benefit us in the short term, long term stress can cause more issues than good. We wait in traffic, sit at a desk all day, stress about paying the bills, the economy, our marriages, kids, how we are going to do XYZ.
This is where we need to also have prayer and meditation. God is good and we need to place Him first in our lives so that all other things can fall into place. Without Him the anxieties of life can become unbearable and life can feel meaningless. With Him however, anxiety fades away, hope takes root, faith strengthens and love & peace endure everlasting. No matter what life throws at us if we are rooted in Christ, we have hope. Meditate, pray, take time to experience His love and peace.
In summary, it is important to try to eat well, sleep well, stay hydrated, workout, give time to God, & lastly don’t stress it. Ya only got one life so live it and live it well : )
Cheers!
