The Super Healthy?

The "super healthy" are typically thought of as health nuts or enthusiasts, people preferring a natural approach to healthcare, and people really into exercise and natural approaches.

Then there are those who run to the pharmacy, prescription dependents, forever chasing symptoms, complacently ill, physically unfit, and reaping the lack of health-sewing.

There actually IS another side, however.  Here is some insight into non-media and non-commercially pharmaceutically driven ways to process a thought about health.

*Note: Feel free to stop reading, if alternative viewpoints anger you. The purpose in sharing this is to counterpoint and to ensample (no I do not mean example) part of the vast spectrum of diversity in health CHOICES.

The following is a snippet of my "non-typical" health history:

After a vaccine reaction as an infant, my mother said, "Never again!" We got the diseases the old fashioned way and because we had healthy immune systems, there was no danger. My mom ran a health food store so we ate whole sprouted grains and carob even when people would still ask, "You're eating what?!?!?” And my dad's cravings for fast food were not looked upon as a “normal thing.“

In my mom's opinion, aspirin, antibiotics or LSD were ALL drugs and she made me promise again and again that I would not take drugs, any drugs, for any reason. My “hyperactivity” (the old fashioned term for ADHD) was handled by lots of sports and exercise. And I knew sugar responded like a drug that made me more “hyper.“

Now, I think my upbringing was extreme. There are occasions where people need medication, and I understand how some have needed it. I may need medicine someday and that’s fine. However, as Christians I find it imperative to understand how mainstream media and big Pharma preach a message as well, so please understand, there IS another side. There are many views on health out there, most of which are ALL extreme. (What is it that they say? Follow the money? see I Timothy 6:10) The allopathy in America is just one option.

For instance, it is completely unnecessary and inappropriate for the general public to receive information about medicine that you cannot buy without a prescription! How can the patient discern things without having studied medicine or pharmacology? Notice the commercials listing the side effects: they are telling you death is a side effect while depicting a patient in good health, happily living life!?! The marketing agents know that you see more than you hear. Unlike doctors, marketing agents are not bound by the Hippocratic Oath.

The Hippocratic Oath is a sworn agreement made by physicians when they become doctors. It includes a promise to share knowledge, to help the ill and not cause harm, and to never give a deadly drug or help another to use one. It is often paraphrased, first do no harm.

I liken this logic to commercials and advertisements trying to sell automatic transmission double clutches. Even if you were interested, could you even go out and purchase one for your car? Just as without a medical license you cannot go out and purchase any prescription drug of your choice, neither could you buy an automatic transmission part while only being a lay person and not a professional mechanic! A skilled mechanic knows about that and he doesn’t need a commercial. It’s all marketing.

We have so much health care available and yet we are not cured of high blood pressure, of MS, of rheumatoid, diabetes or cancers. We have all heard about the “exceptions” and people who “went off the deep end” resulting in ACTUAL HEALTH and HEALING. What if they are the ones doing it right? Should it surprise Christians that the BUSINESS of medicine may not have your best interest at heart? It’s a wicked and perverse world and healthcare is not immune, pun intended :).

*Please note: This is NOT a CRITICISM of health care professionals- they usually do have intentions to help and heal their patients.

Medicine is not morality, although Pharmacia in the Bible might be worth a study. Oh, that each morsel of food would be treated with as much importance as each pill! I believe the "norm" (not "normal," and there is a difference in these two words) is to take a pill if you have a symptom to remove the symptom.

My proposition and personal mantra is to focus more on cleaning up the dumpster verses fighting off the rats from getting into the dumpster. Rats tend to be less populous when you stop creating a habitat that encourages their existence. How do the flies know which garbage can has the garbage inside even with the lid secured?

So, clean up your "dumpster." You are fearfully and wonderfully made; care for your temple.

Here are some good places to start...

Start simple -
Take a walk, every day. Experience the weather. God made it. A bleak grey day can be an amazing symphony of grey skies above you.

Learn to breath -
Take slow, deep breaths; relaxing and contracting your abdomen and pelvic floor. Not everyone with a “flatter” stomach does push ups. Not everyone has urinary incontinence. Pssst- God built your body in a way to have urinary control and it’s linked to something we all do, breath.

Read and understand -
Only one Book was written in stone. Read that one first and most. My personal recommendations for some other good, informative reading is "Sugar Blues" (from the 1970’s is a classic), "Diet for a New America", "Fast Food Nation," "Daniel Diet," and "Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World."

Obviously, we don’t have control over many things in the world. The only things you can control are your choices. Eating well, getting proper rest, exercise, hydration and stress reduction are good choices. And it's good to remind ourselves from time to time that any choices we make out of fear are not from God. May we all be making our health choices with a sound mind.