What is Wellness? Part 2

Well we're back for another episode. Last week we left off talking about how your state of Wellness is determined by the choices you make. Well we are going to continue that discussion this week. So, how about some meat and potatoes?

Right now, Mr./Mrs. Reader, what I want you to do is answer a question for me. What is health? Take a moment and think it over. In fact, write down your definition of health on a piece of paper for me...

Are you done? Good. I bet for most of you your answer went something like this, "Health is when I feel good. Health is when I am not sore and I'm not sick." Well, if you wrote that down on your piece of paper, you failed. But it's okay, because the majority of you probably put that, so you'll pass anyway due to the averaging out of all of your scores. If health is when you feel good then how do you explain Tim Russert's death last year of a sudden heart attack? Didn't he feel good until the moment he had it? Or how about the relative or friend we all know who died or was paralyzed by a stroke? Didn't they feel good until the moment of stroke?

So if health is not how you feel, what is it? You want the answer? Okay, I'll give it to you in 3 words, you ready? Here goes...Health is...

Homeostatic Cell Function

What?! I know, I know, brain cramps from the big scientific word. No worries, it's easy. Homeostasis means balance. So homeostatic cell function means that your cells are working correctly and everything is balanced; hydration, temperature, growth vs. waste, etc. So health, then, is when your cells are all functioning together in a state of balance, making up an entire body (your body) that is functioning in equilibrium. So health is balance, not too fat or too skinny, too hot or too cold, too active or too lazy, too happy or too sad, too stressed or too peaceful.

So if health is balance, what is sickness? Sickness is a loss of balance. This loss of balance has only 2 known causes: Toxicity and/or Deficiency. You are sick because you are toxic from something you ate, drank, breathed, or thought. Or, you are sick because you are deficient in a nutrient that is required for the expression of 100% health. For example: water, proper vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, essential fatty acids, probiotics, proper exercise, positive loving thoughts/relationships, or proper nervous system function. (Chestnut, 2003)

Notice the wording I used above, I said, "...required for the expression of 100% health." Expression implies that your genes play an important role in your health. This is true, they do. But they are not the be all, end all, like the medical world would have us believe. The most important determinant of your health is the environment, i.e., what you eat, how you exercise, what you think, your level of stress, etc. It is the environment that triggers your genes to express a given trait. We all have basically the same genes, it is the expression of our genes that make us different individually. Picture your genes as a light switch, this light switch is the gene for eye color. If the switch is in the "off" position, you will express one trait, say, blue eyes. If the switch is in the "on" position, you will express a different trait, brown eyes. It's the same gene, just a different expression. If all that mattered was that you had a light switch and there wasn't an "on/off" switch, then we'd be in trouble. Then women with the BRCA1 gene (breast cancer gene) would all be doomed to breast cancer. But wait, there are thousands of women with the BRCA1 gene that live their whole lives without ever developing breast cancer, how is this possible? It is possible because having the gene does not mean you will have the trait that the gene codes for (in this case, breast cancer). You must expose the gene to the right (actually, in this case, the wrong) environmental influences in order for it to express the trait. What might these environmental stressors be? Smoking, alcohol, pro-inflammatory diet, BPA and other toxic chemicals in our plastics, herbicides, pesticides, vaccines, subluxation, etc.
For more information on this exciting topic, known as Epigenetics, go here: http://www.ehponline.org/members/2006/114-3/focus.html

So great, if it's our environment that determines our fate, how are we any better off than when we thought our genes were our fate? That's easy. You can choose your environment, you can't choose your genes. By choosing your environment, you influence the traits that your genes express. You choose Wellness by choosing to eat organic fruits and vegetables, exercising daily, living a life of love and gratitude, and stimulating your nervous system by getting regular chiropractic adjustments. You choose sickness and disease when you decide to smoke, drink, eat processed foods, live a sedentary lifestyle, think bad thoughts, and not get regular nervous system checkups. Your Wellness is in your power of choice. Choose Well!

Thank you for reading and God bless your day!


Email any questions to thesolutioniswellness@gmail.com.

References

1. Chestnut, J.L. (2003). The 14 Foundational Premises for the Scientific and Philosophical Validation of the Chiropractic Wellness Paradigm. Victoria, B.C.: The Wellness Practice-Global Self-Help Corp.