The ponytailed, leggings-clad mother of 14 has been spotted in the park near her home practicing yoga moves in front of the cameras, according to the London Daily Mail. Suleman reportedly lifted weights, did sit-ups, and worked on her lotus position.
And even if she hasn't perfected the downward facing dog yet, yoga's good for both her muscles and her head, experts say.
"Yoga offers wonderful resistance and toning practice," says Dr. Anne Kulze, nutrition and wellness expert and author of "Dr. Ann's 10-Step Diet." "It may not pump up the heart rate the way aerobic exercise does, but it's fantastic for toning. People also love it for stress, which we know can impact body weight."
In fact, the time-pressed Suleman may have found the perfect way to tone her body and keep her sanity at the same time.
Yoga is known for its stress-busting potential, says Anne M. Fletcher, author of "Thin for Life" and "Weight Loss Confidential."
"Yoga can help with depression and it increases your energy and relaxes you," she says. "There's something more important about exercise than just burning calories and getting into shape. Yoga offers that psychological dimension, too."
Suleman's svelte shape has been evident for months - even last May she had shrunk to a shadow of what she looked like at the octuplets' birth in January, reports the Daily Mail. But she may be craving not just a leaner body, but some inner peace, too.
She'll find that if she keeps working on her yoga poses, says Christine Avanti, fitness expert and author of "Skinny Chicks Don't Eat Salad."
"Yoga isn't the top fat burning exercise but it gets toxins out of your body and enhances your metabolism," says Avanti, who is certified to teach yoga. "It helps the muscles to be long and lean, rather than short and bulky. It's a muscle toner."
And if the busy 33-year-old mom doesn't have time to tone her muscles through yoga, she can simply try another technique that's built into her day anyway: lifting eight plump babies in and out of their strollers.
Experts say that staying with an exercise regimen should be easy for Octomom as long as she's genuinely enjoying it.
"Any exercise routine that motivates the user to stick with it is good," Fletcher says. "If you find something that you like, you'll stick with it and that's what's important."
Yoga is a complete workout that benefits not only the body, but also the mind and the emotions. It is a real calming workout that's really perfect for the busy mom like Nadya.
Source
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Octomom Nadya Suleman Reduces Waistline and Stress Through Yoga by Rosemary Black, Daily News Staff Writer
Monday, September 14, 2009
Yoga Study Proves Efficacy for Chronic Pain Sufferers by Rachel Stockton rachels at foodconsumer dot org
A new study out of West Virginia University is spotlighting the effects of yoga as an alternative to traditional medicine. The surprise is that yoga seems to have proven itself not only as a preventive mechanism, but as a remedy for pain after injury has occurred.
Study lead Kimberly Williams randomly selected 43 chronic back pain sufferers to take part in a 90 minute yoga class for 24 weeks. Another set of 47 back pain sufferers received traditional medical attention.
The results are impressive; many yoga participants were able to reduce the amount of pain medication they were taking. They reported significantly less functional disability, overt pain, and symptoms of depression than did the control group.
While yoga practitioners the world over have been touting the positive benefits of yoga with regards to back pain, many traditional medicine proponents were skeptical of their optimism. This study, maintains Williams, is one of the most expansive to date and gives credibility to this particular form of alternative medicine.
As for its effect on depression, yoga practitioners have maintained that the practice itself goes beyond mere physicality. Cindee Joslin, yoga practitioner and instructor in Northwest Arkansas encourages her students to bring their entire being to the mat, assuring them that more will be revealed if they are patient and willing to fully engage in the practice - not a whole lot to ask for such life changing benefits.
Natural methods are indeed more effective and beneficial than conventional methods. Yoga affects the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual dimensions of human beings.
Source
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Health and Nutrition Myths - Part 2 by Evita, Child Health, Health and Nutrition Myths, Immune Health, Natural Health, Prevention, Respiratory Health,
In this second part of our Health and Nutrition Myths series, we will focus on how we get sick, where infectious organisms are concerned, and dispel some myths about that and our immune systems.
This part of the series is inspired by another one of our readers Amber, who thanks to her questions has opened up a platform for more in depth learning for all of us here, where the immune system is concerned.
This edition of Health and Nutrition Myths comes at a great time too, as reports of the swine flu continue to escalate and many out there are living with a lot of misinformation when it comes to our immune system and infectious diseases. This can be problematic in so many ways, as not having proper information on things like vaccines, anti-microbial products, cleaning products and how infectious disease actually work, can leave us vulnerable to more problems than we try to avoid. Thus in this series, we will address a few of these.
Health and Nutrition Myths, Questions and Answers
What I’m gathering from this is our bodies as a whole don’t work like our muscles do. If we damage them, we don’t get any stronger?
This is a great question and has a bit of a complicated, yes and no answer. However the quick answer is no, our bodies are not like our muscles in that the more we damage them, the stronger they get.
For starters, let us talk about our muscles and dispel any myths about them first. When we work out, we put pressure on our muscles. Various movements, lifting, pushing and pressing can all attribute to small tears, which ultimately we want. This is because when our muscles repair themselves, they build themselves back up stronger and in right instances bigger than before. This however is not an infinite process. Our muscles will not keep growing infinitely with increased work outs. Yes, we can continue to increase our strength, but not our size.
On this note however, over straining our muscles, to the point of serious damage, can actually lead to physical pain and even injury. So we cannot always think, that the harder I push the better. For best results, we must accommodate our exercises to our needs, respect our body and understand that proper growth and strength will occur if the body is able to have proper rest and nutrition, for healing and repair.
Now going back to our overall body. The best way to look at it, is to compare it to a car, not the muscles. This is a simple analogy, but it drives the point home (no pun intended). With this in mind let us consider this example:
Person A and B both bought the same car, on the same day.
Person A drives their car 3 times a week for 100km in total, gives the car regular washes, oil changes and other maintenance.
Person B drives their car 7 times a week for 600km in total, neglects to give the car regular care and maintenance.
Whose car (leaving chance factors aside) is going to last longer? And better yet, will person B’s car get “stronger” with this kind of activity?
I think the answer seems obvious.
Therefore, while our bodies may become immune to a certain disease from having gotten them at some other point in time, generally speaking any wear and tear or damage that we do to them is just that - damage. Poor eating, sleeping, lots of stress, lack of exercise, do not make the body stronger. These are all like driving that car too much, and not giving it the maintenance it needs. Ultimately, like the car, our bodies get worn out faster, aging is accelerated, healing is slowed down, weight control is harder and diseases easily set in.
Some people will still argue this, and give all sorts of reasons why they feel like the more stress they have, the stronger their health seems, but unfortunately this is an illusion. The body adapts to work in this certain environment, and on the outside all may look well. On the inside however, the adrenal glands are becoming depleted in function, liver, kidney and other organs follow suit, not to mention the heart, blood vessels, etc.
And while a major lifestyle change can undo some, perhaps even most of this damage over a few years, leaving it be, is definitely not making our bodies stronger, but on the contrary much weaker.
What about our immune systems? I’ve heard, that the reason why older people aren’t as susceptible to the H1N1 virus is because when they were younger they had a flu that was a similar strain. Therefore, they still have antibodies to protect them from it, so their odds of getting it are decreased?
When it comes to the immune system and antibodies, we move into a very complex area. In fact, the average person has but a tiny speck of how it really works. What we do pick up of a lot, is stories from other people. Many repeated facts over and over, our belief in them and no one ever actually looking into whether these facts are true.
So for starters, yes immunity to certain viruses, like the flu appears to last up to a lifetime. This is according to some researchers, like Eric Altschuler, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and co-author of a recent paper in Nature about antibodies to the 1918 pandemic flu virus.
What this means, is that in a perfectly controlled setting, if we got say strain ABC of the flu, and then flu ABC came around again, we would be immune to it and hence not get it. In fact, we would probably be immune to strain ABD, and similar strains as well.
However, life does not revolve in a perfectly controlled setting. For one, viruses are rapidly mutating all the time. This is one of the biggest reasons, why each fall there is a new flu vaccine, and getting last year’s flu vaccine, does not imply immunity to this year’s flu strains.
Secondly, and here is the biggie, the degree of protection depends on the health of the person involved. Even the CDC - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is quick to point that out.
Generally speaking, the bigger factor is not whether one has had a particular flu strain in the past, but what kind of health are they in today, that makes the difference if they are going to catch a certain flu or even other virus.
The story then becomes easy to see that the case is not quite so for older people. Even though they may have had the virus, or a similar virus years ago, generally speaking, older people are in worse health and shape. This makes them become a prime target for many infectious diseases. The chance of them getting something increases if they are already suffering from other diseases, are overweight, smoking, drinking heavily, etc.
And likewise this makes us understand that younger people are not necessarily at a disadvantage because they did not have it. If one is in excellent health, getting proper amounts of sleep, water, nutritious food each day, exercising, and living low stress, then there is no reason why one would be susceptible to any flu.
The biggest thing that most people don’t know, realize or forget, is that our bodies were not designed to get sick - you can take this to mean infectious or chronic diseases. We have an amazing system - the immune system which provides an excellent line of defense against pathogens, but of course only if we support it properly, and not damage it or stress it beyond an acceptable range.
Your body’s defenses are not always going to be at 100%. What if… you were stuck in a room with say 10 people who were all sick, it was the dead of winter so your defenses were already weakened, and you forgot your lunch?
Great case scenario to consider indeed! And this one is actually very easy and gets a quick answer. It is not the conditions of one time that determine whether we will catch something infectious, but the overall pattern and lifestyle. In this case scenario if say the person ate great, nutritious meals every day, slept enough, etc, and then this one day gets placed in a situation like this, then it shouldn’t have any impact.
However, if the person is suffering from some stress, sometimes eating well, sometimes not, etc, then yes, this kind of case scenario may just be adding fuel to the fire, so to say and making the person very susceptible to an infection.
Bottom line, many factors come into play, but it is the general, overall lifestyle that determines our health, not the odd time.
Isn’t getting sick every so often better than when you do finally get sick, your body isn’t prepared and you get something really awful?
This is a great question and in fact a myth that plagues many, many parents in their reasoning of why they send their children to say daycare.
Many parents are under the assumption that a child will get sick no matter what - either sooner or later, but sick no matter what. This they believe is part of the natural way to build up one’s immune system. So the reasoning for many is that they prefer to send their children to daycare, knowing they will get sick, in an attempt to prevent sicknesses in the future, i.e. when they go to grade school. It is kind of the idea of let’s just get this over and done with.
But here is one big fact to dispel this myth that many people are unaware of: you do not actually need to get sick to build up your immune system.
In fact, we come across numerous and I mean numerous, in the millions if not billions micro-organisms everyday and don’t get sick. In fact, I sometimes think it is a miracle that we get as little as we do. But that is the power and the magnificence of our immune system. We were not put here as weak little bodies. We are literally invincible to the micro-organisms, if of course we support ourselves properly in mind, body and spirit.
Second of all, if you are properly supporting your body, it is ALWAYS ready to fight off foreign invaders, unless again of course there are other issues. The biggest of which are stress, lack of sleep, lack of proper nutrition, etc. It does not work in the way, that if we don’t get sick for a while, our body somehow “forgets” what to do and then we are prone to catching something bigger or worse.
So there is indeed a myth going around that those who get sick more frequently, are actually better able to fight off something “big”. Fortunately or unfortunately, not true. The more sick we get, the more run down our immune system gets, and having one infection, usually makes us that much more prone to getting another. This is why for example people who start off with a little cold, and say don’t take care of it, don’t rest, etc, end up fighting bronchitis next or worse yet pneumonia.
Conclusion
Our immune system is indeed probably one of the most intricate and poorly understood systems of all. Doctors and researchers are still each day learning new facts when it comes to this amazing system and the lines of defense it offers us.
Ultimately, I am going to repeat this again, we never have to get sick from any infectious diseases. Yes, our system is THAT good - but again, only under the right circumstances.
Now, many people may think that such “right circumstances” are unrealistic, but on the contrary, they are our natural birthright. We just don’t realize today, how badly we are abusing our bodies, with the chemical food we feed it, empty calories, toxins, lack of exercise, sleep and unnatural amounts of stress. We have accepted all these as normal, but they are so far from that or even from being natural in any way.
So the best defense against the flu, whether it be the swine flu or any other, colds and other infections is to support your body properly, which then in return will support all your systems to work optimally and keep you healthy and happy!
The way a person takes care of his or her own body says a lot about a person's health and a person who takes care of his or her health has a strong immune system that can be impenetrable to most diseases. Therefore, a person's health says a lot about his or her total wellness. Take care of your health!
Source
This part of the series is inspired by another one of our readers Amber, who thanks to her questions has opened up a platform for more in depth learning for all of us here, where the immune system is concerned.
This edition of Health and Nutrition Myths comes at a great time too, as reports of the swine flu continue to escalate and many out there are living with a lot of misinformation when it comes to our immune system and infectious diseases. This can be problematic in so many ways, as not having proper information on things like vaccines, anti-microbial products, cleaning products and how infectious disease actually work, can leave us vulnerable to more problems than we try to avoid. Thus in this series, we will address a few of these.
Health and Nutrition Myths, Questions and Answers
What I’m gathering from this is our bodies as a whole don’t work like our muscles do. If we damage them, we don’t get any stronger?
This is a great question and has a bit of a complicated, yes and no answer. However the quick answer is no, our bodies are not like our muscles in that the more we damage them, the stronger they get.
For starters, let us talk about our muscles and dispel any myths about them first. When we work out, we put pressure on our muscles. Various movements, lifting, pushing and pressing can all attribute to small tears, which ultimately we want. This is because when our muscles repair themselves, they build themselves back up stronger and in right instances bigger than before. This however is not an infinite process. Our muscles will not keep growing infinitely with increased work outs. Yes, we can continue to increase our strength, but not our size.
On this note however, over straining our muscles, to the point of serious damage, can actually lead to physical pain and even injury. So we cannot always think, that the harder I push the better. For best results, we must accommodate our exercises to our needs, respect our body and understand that proper growth and strength will occur if the body is able to have proper rest and nutrition, for healing and repair.
Now going back to our overall body. The best way to look at it, is to compare it to a car, not the muscles. This is a simple analogy, but it drives the point home (no pun intended). With this in mind let us consider this example:
Person A and B both bought the same car, on the same day.
Person A drives their car 3 times a week for 100km in total, gives the car regular washes, oil changes and other maintenance.
Person B drives their car 7 times a week for 600km in total, neglects to give the car regular care and maintenance.
Whose car (leaving chance factors aside) is going to last longer? And better yet, will person B’s car get “stronger” with this kind of activity?
I think the answer seems obvious.
Therefore, while our bodies may become immune to a certain disease from having gotten them at some other point in time, generally speaking any wear and tear or damage that we do to them is just that - damage. Poor eating, sleeping, lots of stress, lack of exercise, do not make the body stronger. These are all like driving that car too much, and not giving it the maintenance it needs. Ultimately, like the car, our bodies get worn out faster, aging is accelerated, healing is slowed down, weight control is harder and diseases easily set in.
Some people will still argue this, and give all sorts of reasons why they feel like the more stress they have, the stronger their health seems, but unfortunately this is an illusion. The body adapts to work in this certain environment, and on the outside all may look well. On the inside however, the adrenal glands are becoming depleted in function, liver, kidney and other organs follow suit, not to mention the heart, blood vessels, etc.
And while a major lifestyle change can undo some, perhaps even most of this damage over a few years, leaving it be, is definitely not making our bodies stronger, but on the contrary much weaker.
What about our immune systems? I’ve heard, that the reason why older people aren’t as susceptible to the H1N1 virus is because when they were younger they had a flu that was a similar strain. Therefore, they still have antibodies to protect them from it, so their odds of getting it are decreased?
When it comes to the immune system and antibodies, we move into a very complex area. In fact, the average person has but a tiny speck of how it really works. What we do pick up of a lot, is stories from other people. Many repeated facts over and over, our belief in them and no one ever actually looking into whether these facts are true.
So for starters, yes immunity to certain viruses, like the flu appears to last up to a lifetime. This is according to some researchers, like Eric Altschuler, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and co-author of a recent paper in Nature about antibodies to the 1918 pandemic flu virus.
What this means, is that in a perfectly controlled setting, if we got say strain ABC of the flu, and then flu ABC came around again, we would be immune to it and hence not get it. In fact, we would probably be immune to strain ABD, and similar strains as well.
However, life does not revolve in a perfectly controlled setting. For one, viruses are rapidly mutating all the time. This is one of the biggest reasons, why each fall there is a new flu vaccine, and getting last year’s flu vaccine, does not imply immunity to this year’s flu strains.
Secondly, and here is the biggie, the degree of protection depends on the health of the person involved. Even the CDC - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is quick to point that out.
Generally speaking, the bigger factor is not whether one has had a particular flu strain in the past, but what kind of health are they in today, that makes the difference if they are going to catch a certain flu or even other virus.
The story then becomes easy to see that the case is not quite so for older people. Even though they may have had the virus, or a similar virus years ago, generally speaking, older people are in worse health and shape. This makes them become a prime target for many infectious diseases. The chance of them getting something increases if they are already suffering from other diseases, are overweight, smoking, drinking heavily, etc.
And likewise this makes us understand that younger people are not necessarily at a disadvantage because they did not have it. If one is in excellent health, getting proper amounts of sleep, water, nutritious food each day, exercising, and living low stress, then there is no reason why one would be susceptible to any flu.
The biggest thing that most people don’t know, realize or forget, is that our bodies were not designed to get sick - you can take this to mean infectious or chronic diseases. We have an amazing system - the immune system which provides an excellent line of defense against pathogens, but of course only if we support it properly, and not damage it or stress it beyond an acceptable range.
Your body’s defenses are not always going to be at 100%. What if… you were stuck in a room with say 10 people who were all sick, it was the dead of winter so your defenses were already weakened, and you forgot your lunch?
Great case scenario to consider indeed! And this one is actually very easy and gets a quick answer. It is not the conditions of one time that determine whether we will catch something infectious, but the overall pattern and lifestyle. In this case scenario if say the person ate great, nutritious meals every day, slept enough, etc, and then this one day gets placed in a situation like this, then it shouldn’t have any impact.
However, if the person is suffering from some stress, sometimes eating well, sometimes not, etc, then yes, this kind of case scenario may just be adding fuel to the fire, so to say and making the person very susceptible to an infection.
Bottom line, many factors come into play, but it is the general, overall lifestyle that determines our health, not the odd time.
Isn’t getting sick every so often better than when you do finally get sick, your body isn’t prepared and you get something really awful?
This is a great question and in fact a myth that plagues many, many parents in their reasoning of why they send their children to say daycare.
Many parents are under the assumption that a child will get sick no matter what - either sooner or later, but sick no matter what. This they believe is part of the natural way to build up one’s immune system. So the reasoning for many is that they prefer to send their children to daycare, knowing they will get sick, in an attempt to prevent sicknesses in the future, i.e. when they go to grade school. It is kind of the idea of let’s just get this over and done with.
But here is one big fact to dispel this myth that many people are unaware of: you do not actually need to get sick to build up your immune system.
In fact, we come across numerous and I mean numerous, in the millions if not billions micro-organisms everyday and don’t get sick. In fact, I sometimes think it is a miracle that we get as little as we do. But that is the power and the magnificence of our immune system. We were not put here as weak little bodies. We are literally invincible to the micro-organisms, if of course we support ourselves properly in mind, body and spirit.
Second of all, if you are properly supporting your body, it is ALWAYS ready to fight off foreign invaders, unless again of course there are other issues. The biggest of which are stress, lack of sleep, lack of proper nutrition, etc. It does not work in the way, that if we don’t get sick for a while, our body somehow “forgets” what to do and then we are prone to catching something bigger or worse.
So there is indeed a myth going around that those who get sick more frequently, are actually better able to fight off something “big”. Fortunately or unfortunately, not true. The more sick we get, the more run down our immune system gets, and having one infection, usually makes us that much more prone to getting another. This is why for example people who start off with a little cold, and say don’t take care of it, don’t rest, etc, end up fighting bronchitis next or worse yet pneumonia.
Conclusion
Our immune system is indeed probably one of the most intricate and poorly understood systems of all. Doctors and researchers are still each day learning new facts when it comes to this amazing system and the lines of defense it offers us.
Ultimately, I am going to repeat this again, we never have to get sick from any infectious diseases. Yes, our system is THAT good - but again, only under the right circumstances.
Now, many people may think that such “right circumstances” are unrealistic, but on the contrary, they are our natural birthright. We just don’t realize today, how badly we are abusing our bodies, with the chemical food we feed it, empty calories, toxins, lack of exercise, sleep and unnatural amounts of stress. We have accepted all these as normal, but they are so far from that or even from being natural in any way.
So the best defense against the flu, whether it be the swine flu or any other, colds and other infections is to support your body properly, which then in return will support all your systems to work optimally and keep you healthy and happy!
The way a person takes care of his or her own body says a lot about a person's health and a person who takes care of his or her health has a strong immune system that can be impenetrable to most diseases. Therefore, a person's health says a lot about his or her total wellness. Take care of your health!
Source
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Health and Nutrition Myths - Part 1, by Evita on May 7, 2008 in Health and Nutrition Myths, Nutrition, Pharmaceuticals
There are many, many areas for us to still talk about when it comes to proper health and nutrition that is based on unbiased, credible and reliable advice, and through your feedback I am delighted to expand upon these topics. Hence I call this article Health and Nutrition Myths - Part 1. And who knows, this might even turn into a regular series on Evolving Wellness. I am hoping you will have many more comments and questions where the topic of your health and nutrition is concerned and so this is part 1 of many!
Health and Nutrition Questions and Answers
I feel like my body is supposed to be able to deal with unhealthy stuff but don’t overdo it. Isn’t that what we do from an early age?
I have heard so many such comments from so many people. Most of us do believe that our body can “deal with” or “handle” many harmful substances we put in it, especially in moderation.
And why?
Well the answer is very simple - because the very first people we looked at as examples were our parents. As young kids most of us have seen our parents do at least one of the following: smoke, drink, overeat, or eat poorly (fast food, skipped meals, etc.)
And what?
And for the most part, nothing - they still survived, they did not drop dead on the spot, in fact most of the time they did not even get sick at that moment. So our human brain made a very quick association. “This stuff seems to be ok”.
Now the fact that mom and dad got unexplained headaches, the fact they got indigestion or other digestive problems, the fact that they got high blood pressure or had heart problems never really got linked to what they ate or drank. This is especially true for anyone who grew up in the 80’s or before. People correlated headaches and blood pressure to such things as the weather, cancers and heart disease to worn out bodies or old age and that was that.
Well today we have a different story. Science and medicine has been making leaps and bounds in terms of discoveries. Today we can link so much of what happens to us down the road to what we ate, drank or put into our system earlier on in life, at a consistent rate.
And so for most people out there, the correlation that “everything I put into my system will affect me in a positive or a negative way, quickly or long term” does NOT exist. We have just seen too many people “be okay” after they would eat and drink lots of stuff we are today being told is bad and should be avoided.
I did talk quite a bit about this in a previous article I wrote entitled “Everything in moderation…not quite!“, which can fill in more details on this subject.
And so I stress again: just because our body CAN handle unfavorable substances does NOT mean it wants to. And you truly do become what you eat as food is used to make and fuel our cells that make up your tissues, organs and ultimately - you!
What each of us has to ask ourselves is simply this “how good of health do I want?” It is not one answer serves all. Really, I know many people who will say answers like “average” or “good enough”. And so ask yourself the following:
“Am I okay with getting the average headache, indigestion, cold, flu, etc.?” If yes, then some substances that are harmful or not really meant to be consumed by the body, when taken in small amounts will serve you just fine.
“Am I okay with cancers and heart disease as a possible future outcome on top of small regular ailments, etc.?” If yes, then consume anything you like in any amount you like.
If however you answered no to the above two questions, and if your goal is optimal health and prevention of any and all diseases then you have to understand that you cannot put any harmful substances into your body in any amount. This way you are creating the most optimal environment for your body to function and hence offer you protection when need arises.
What about all these different germs out there? We can’t live in a bubble. This world is not a healthy place.
When it comes to “germs”, it might shock most people a lot to find out that in fact about 95% of bacteria out there are beneficial and necessary for us to survive and the environment. This is obviously NOT what the chemical cleaning companies want you to believe. We live today in a world where we are trying to eliminate 99.99% of germs but nobody stops to ask is this really beneficial. All we get constantly is scare tactics of diseases we can get from all these “germs”. And in fact what we are doing is making the harmful bacteria stronger than ever using all these chemicals.
Well the truth is about 100 years ago, heck not even, 50 years ago, people lived in conditions that were not even half as sanitary as we have today and many kids and adults were healthier than ever. No allergies, no asthmas, etc.
The other truth is, yes there are some bacteria and viruses that do cause disease BUT and ready for this one…if you have an optimally working system your risk of these “bugs” ever causing a disease in you drops drastically and in perfect cases even disappears.
So no, we definitely cannot live in a bubble, but the best part is we do not need to. A lot of the hype and hysteria that comes out of the media and big corporations though, will have you believe otherwise.
I personally love the topic of bacteria and viruses and will thoroughly enjoy talking more about this in future articles.
As far as the world being a healthy or not healthy place, well that is up for debate depending on what aspect of it you are considering. Yes, the quality of water and air has deteriorated and yes it is harder than ever to find whole, healthy foods. But that does not mean they do not exist. Call me an optimist, but there are still lots of healthy and amazing things about the world today.
We are tough little organisms!
Yes, we are! Our human body was constructed in such magnificent ways that most doctors and scientists still can’t wrap their minds around it. We still know so little when it comes to the ins and outs of our body. But we have made amazing progress.
And it is our bodies amazing resilience that gives a lot of people the wrong impression about what the body can and cannot take. As I mentioned above, very seldom do we see quick correlations between cause of something we took in and effect. Our body is so good at covering things up and trying to deal with things, that that is why it usually takes years for something more serious to become prominent.
In the meantime as we throw in harmful substances body cleans them out and neutralizes them and does whatever it needs not to upset the delicate balance in which it has to operate. But as any “machine” with enough stress on it, things start to break down. And hence nutrition can greatly hurt or help the body do what it is supposed to.
What about prescription meds? Do they cause liver disease too?
Depending on what type of medication you are taking and in what amounts, one can definitely sustain liver damage from taking prescription meds. This can turn into liver disease again depending on the drug(s) and length of time taking them on top of the consumption of other substances like alcohol and bad food.
The liver has to detoxify (a.k.a clean) anything and I mean everything that is foreign or harmful to the body. And since prescription meds are “drugs” just like alcohol is a “drug”, and for those not comfortable with that term, we can use the term “chemicals” (not that that is any better), they too need to be dealt with by the liver.
This is why just a simple over the counter medicine like Tylenol has to be used cautiously as taking too many of those pills at once can cause liver damage or worse. And let us all think how many people in our society pop those like candy at the sight of the slightest pain.
Ultimately for a healthy liver, just like fast food should be avoided so should as much medicine (drugs) as possible. I am not telling you to drop you medication without a doctor’s approval but simply to know the facts that yes drugs, any drugs, do put stress on and eventually can cause liver damage. This is obviously not what the big drug companies want you to focus on, but it is an unavoidable truth.
Hence I am a big, and I mean big believer of prevention to avoid treatment in the future, usually because the health gets to a point where drug intervention is needed to help the person function and this is good in one way but damaging in another. If there already exists a problem I would therefore recommend a good naturopath whose philosophy is also about prevention not one who will push supplements onto you in place of pharmaceutical drugs.
Conclusion
As I have mentioned many times before, learning together is fantastic! So as you bring me your questions and concerns I love explaining how the body functions and doing my own research in areas I need to fill in on. This way we can all grow, learn and become even more aware of attaining optimal health and wellness. And so I look forward to many more questions to come!
We are a tough species. We keep on adapting and evolving. But there is always going to be a trade-off if we don't look after our won health. Healthy living is a personal lifestyle choice. Proper education is the key in encouraging everyone to join the bandwagon towards wellness and healing.
Source
Health and Nutrition Questions and Answers
I feel like my body is supposed to be able to deal with unhealthy stuff but don’t overdo it. Isn’t that what we do from an early age?
I have heard so many such comments from so many people. Most of us do believe that our body can “deal with” or “handle” many harmful substances we put in it, especially in moderation.
And why?
Well the answer is very simple - because the very first people we looked at as examples were our parents. As young kids most of us have seen our parents do at least one of the following: smoke, drink, overeat, or eat poorly (fast food, skipped meals, etc.)
And what?
And for the most part, nothing - they still survived, they did not drop dead on the spot, in fact most of the time they did not even get sick at that moment. So our human brain made a very quick association. “This stuff seems to be ok”.
Now the fact that mom and dad got unexplained headaches, the fact they got indigestion or other digestive problems, the fact that they got high blood pressure or had heart problems never really got linked to what they ate or drank. This is especially true for anyone who grew up in the 80’s or before. People correlated headaches and blood pressure to such things as the weather, cancers and heart disease to worn out bodies or old age and that was that.
Well today we have a different story. Science and medicine has been making leaps and bounds in terms of discoveries. Today we can link so much of what happens to us down the road to what we ate, drank or put into our system earlier on in life, at a consistent rate.
And so for most people out there, the correlation that “everything I put into my system will affect me in a positive or a negative way, quickly or long term” does NOT exist. We have just seen too many people “be okay” after they would eat and drink lots of stuff we are today being told is bad and should be avoided.
I did talk quite a bit about this in a previous article I wrote entitled “Everything in moderation…not quite!“, which can fill in more details on this subject.
And so I stress again: just because our body CAN handle unfavorable substances does NOT mean it wants to. And you truly do become what you eat as food is used to make and fuel our cells that make up your tissues, organs and ultimately - you!
What each of us has to ask ourselves is simply this “how good of health do I want?” It is not one answer serves all. Really, I know many people who will say answers like “average” or “good enough”. And so ask yourself the following:
“Am I okay with getting the average headache, indigestion, cold, flu, etc.?” If yes, then some substances that are harmful or not really meant to be consumed by the body, when taken in small amounts will serve you just fine.
“Am I okay with cancers and heart disease as a possible future outcome on top of small regular ailments, etc.?” If yes, then consume anything you like in any amount you like.
If however you answered no to the above two questions, and if your goal is optimal health and prevention of any and all diseases then you have to understand that you cannot put any harmful substances into your body in any amount. This way you are creating the most optimal environment for your body to function and hence offer you protection when need arises.
What about all these different germs out there? We can’t live in a bubble. This world is not a healthy place.
When it comes to “germs”, it might shock most people a lot to find out that in fact about 95% of bacteria out there are beneficial and necessary for us to survive and the environment. This is obviously NOT what the chemical cleaning companies want you to believe. We live today in a world where we are trying to eliminate 99.99% of germs but nobody stops to ask is this really beneficial. All we get constantly is scare tactics of diseases we can get from all these “germs”. And in fact what we are doing is making the harmful bacteria stronger than ever using all these chemicals.
Well the truth is about 100 years ago, heck not even, 50 years ago, people lived in conditions that were not even half as sanitary as we have today and many kids and adults were healthier than ever. No allergies, no asthmas, etc.
The other truth is, yes there are some bacteria and viruses that do cause disease BUT and ready for this one…if you have an optimally working system your risk of these “bugs” ever causing a disease in you drops drastically and in perfect cases even disappears.
So no, we definitely cannot live in a bubble, but the best part is we do not need to. A lot of the hype and hysteria that comes out of the media and big corporations though, will have you believe otherwise.
I personally love the topic of bacteria and viruses and will thoroughly enjoy talking more about this in future articles.
As far as the world being a healthy or not healthy place, well that is up for debate depending on what aspect of it you are considering. Yes, the quality of water and air has deteriorated and yes it is harder than ever to find whole, healthy foods. But that does not mean they do not exist. Call me an optimist, but there are still lots of healthy and amazing things about the world today.
We are tough little organisms!
Yes, we are! Our human body was constructed in such magnificent ways that most doctors and scientists still can’t wrap their minds around it. We still know so little when it comes to the ins and outs of our body. But we have made amazing progress.
And it is our bodies amazing resilience that gives a lot of people the wrong impression about what the body can and cannot take. As I mentioned above, very seldom do we see quick correlations between cause of something we took in and effect. Our body is so good at covering things up and trying to deal with things, that that is why it usually takes years for something more serious to become prominent.
In the meantime as we throw in harmful substances body cleans them out and neutralizes them and does whatever it needs not to upset the delicate balance in which it has to operate. But as any “machine” with enough stress on it, things start to break down. And hence nutrition can greatly hurt or help the body do what it is supposed to.
What about prescription meds? Do they cause liver disease too?
Depending on what type of medication you are taking and in what amounts, one can definitely sustain liver damage from taking prescription meds. This can turn into liver disease again depending on the drug(s) and length of time taking them on top of the consumption of other substances like alcohol and bad food.
The liver has to detoxify (a.k.a clean) anything and I mean everything that is foreign or harmful to the body. And since prescription meds are “drugs” just like alcohol is a “drug”, and for those not comfortable with that term, we can use the term “chemicals” (not that that is any better), they too need to be dealt with by the liver.
This is why just a simple over the counter medicine like Tylenol has to be used cautiously as taking too many of those pills at once can cause liver damage or worse. And let us all think how many people in our society pop those like candy at the sight of the slightest pain.
Ultimately for a healthy liver, just like fast food should be avoided so should as much medicine (drugs) as possible. I am not telling you to drop you medication without a doctor’s approval but simply to know the facts that yes drugs, any drugs, do put stress on and eventually can cause liver damage. This is obviously not what the big drug companies want you to focus on, but it is an unavoidable truth.
Hence I am a big, and I mean big believer of prevention to avoid treatment in the future, usually because the health gets to a point where drug intervention is needed to help the person function and this is good in one way but damaging in another. If there already exists a problem I would therefore recommend a good naturopath whose philosophy is also about prevention not one who will push supplements onto you in place of pharmaceutical drugs.
Conclusion
As I have mentioned many times before, learning together is fantastic! So as you bring me your questions and concerns I love explaining how the body functions and doing my own research in areas I need to fill in on. This way we can all grow, learn and become even more aware of attaining optimal health and wellness. And so I look forward to many more questions to come!
We are a tough species. We keep on adapting and evolving. But there is always going to be a trade-off if we don't look after our won health. Healthy living is a personal lifestyle choice. Proper education is the key in encouraging everyone to join the bandwagon towards wellness and healing.
Source
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