7 Habits of Highly Healthy

​With all the talk about the Affordable Health Care Act, I’ve heard hardly anything about health. The so called “health care reform” focuses on the same old, ineffective paradigm of health bases on insurance and drugs and surgery. The only way to resolve the healthcare crisis is for each individual to take full responsibility for their health and to quite relying on medical miracles to save them when they have not taken personal responsibility.

The challenge is that there is so much information available and too much of the time, people will not do all the things necessary to achieve a high level of health. Just like your car needs a number of things, gas, oil, water, electrical spark, to run, your body needs a multi-faceted approach in order to be truly healthy.

Take the example of “John.” John appears to be healthy because he his trim and well-muscled. John works out five times a week, but John suffers from allergies and digestive issues and gets sick a lot because John is not doing the other things he needs to do in order to be healthy. He is hoping that working out and taking a chemically processed multi-vitamin supplement as well as a flu shot will get him by. What can John do to improve his health status?

There are a number of factors that go into being highly healthy and all of them work in sync with each other. If one component is missing you will not enjoy the benefits of being highly healthy. The components that are essential to true health are 1) Good food and appropriate nutritional supplementation 2) Proper activity 3) Good attitude and spirituality 4) Rest and relaxation, 5) Stress reduction and social involvement 6) water and 7) Proper energy flow throughout the body in order to coordinate all your bodily functions. I’m going to touch on each of these areas in this article and hopefully be able to follow up in greater detail in the coming months.

Good Nutrition:

Everything you learned in grade school is probably wrong. What constitutes a healthy diet and what supplements we should take has been extensively research and modified over the decades. The attitude by many is “Since they keep changing the recommendations, I’m just going to eat what I want. I’m going to die anyway. I might as well be happy.” What a dangerous way of thinking. Eating a healthy diet doesn’t have to be miserable, but when we eat an unhealthy diet our brains get used to the high levels of sugar and fat so it take time to make a change. Once the change is made, the brain will tend to crave the healthy food rather than the unhealthy food. I have friend who lost 80 pounds in two years and got off his diabetes medicine by avoiding processed foods and fast foods.

So what are some good recommendations?: Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, a small amount of high quality protein, some healthy fat such as olive or coconut oil and sweet potatoes. Nuts and seeds are OK, too, but avoid breads, grains, corn, cake, crackers, etc. as much as possible, especially if you are trying to lose weight or have been told you have metabolic syndrome.

Proper Activity

In general we are way too sedentary. It seems that we can drive up for almost everything. Of course, now that you are not driving up to the fast food window, you’ll be getting more activity when you shop for fresh food at the grocery store. We need at least ½ hour of moderate activity a day. You don’t have to join a gym or have anything special except some decent walking shoes in order to walk. Walking outside is a double positive as the sunshine helps promote serotonin and vitamin D production. Another way to get more activity is to park further from the store, take the stairs, get up and march in place during the commercials.

Good Attitude

We all know people who probably wouldn’t get well, even if the hand of god came down on them because of their negative attitude. The way we think has a powerful effect on how we feel. Just try staying down while whistling a happy tune.

Believing that you can get well and stay well has been shown to have an effectiveness rate of at least 30%. There are practices of health care the solely utilize the placebo effect along with positive thinking to help people get well.

How can this be? You might ask. For one thing, having a positive attitude creates positive brain chemicals that help you rest and heal better. Many chronic conditions, such as fibromyalgia are primarily caused by poor quality of sleep due to too many stress chemicals in the blood. In addition to creating positive brain chemicals, having a positive attitude will help you sit and stand straighter, allowing you to breathe better. You’ll also be more inclined to get exercise and to eat properly when you have a positive attitude.

Rest and Relaxation

Rest and relaxation includes proper sleep as well as taking time out to do things you enjoy to refresh your mind. Too many people spend countless hours watching TV. While TV can be entertaining it is not always relaxing. Relaxing and getting proper sleep helps the body form rejuvenating and healing hormones. It also slows down your adrenal glands reducing the output of cortisol, which is important, but when our adrenals are on go all the time, the excess cortisol production is damaging.

Stress Reduction and Social Involvement

Also with relaxation you might need to actively engage in stress reduction techniques. This can be reducing your exposure to common stressors. For example, if going to the grocery store on their busiest day stress you, go a different time. You might also need to engage in Yoga, prayer or meditation, time when you can still your mind in order to slow it down in general. Sometimes visualizing a peaceful setting such as the beach or a mountain top can help.

In addition, spending time with people who support you emotionally can be very beneficial. Get rid of your friends who are negative or a drag on your energy and cultivate your friendships with people who are easy to be with.

Water

Our bodies are over 70% water. All our chemical processes that make us move, think, digest, breathe, etc. require water in order to work. It is thought that many of our chronic health problems are due in part to chronic dehydration. The idea that we can get a sufficient amount of water from the foods we eat is like thinking we are cacti. Many foods just don’t have that much water in them. In addition, thinking that other beverages are just as good can be a problem as well because it might be hard for the body to extract the water from other liquids, plus the sugar in soda, tea and juice or the sweeteners in diet drinks just are plain harmful. Water should be purified to remove chemicals and funky taste. Plus the water should be alkalinized with a pinch of backing soda or alkalinizing drops in order to be best used by the body.

Proper Energy Flow

As living creatures we are energetic beings. The energy spark starts in the brain and then travels through the nervous system in order for us to function as living beings. Energy also lows through the acupuncture meridians and through every tissue in the body. The difference between a living person and the newly dead is that the living have energy flowing through their bodies and the dead don’t.

The problem is that our daily activities use up our energy and stress on our systems interfere with energy flow so we end like a cell phone that is slightly out of range all the time. Minor displacements of the bones in the spine and head, called vertebral subluxation have a major impact on the flow of the cerebral spinal fluid and the nervous system energy. When you have subluxation, it’s like having a dimmer switch on the nerve energy to your organs, which then can’t function at 100%

The best way to make sure your energy is flowing properly is to get regular chiropractic adjustments. The only way to know if you have subluxation is to get checked by a chiropractor. Waiting until you have symptoms is like waiting until the oil light comes on in your car before doing anything about it. Using drugs to resolve symptoms is like painting over the oil light in your car.

The way to true, abundant health is through taking personal responsibility to do what you need to do to achieve a high level of health. You might need to start slowly changing one thing at a time. Remember you didn’t get run down in a day so be patient and 1) Eat right, 2) Be active 3) Create a positive attitude 4) GE good rest and learn to relax 5) Keep your stress at bay and foster positive relationships 6) Drink pure water and 7) Get regular chiropractic care so that your body can make the best use of the rest of your new health habits.  If you need help shifting your person health paradigm, ask for help. That’s what I’m here for.