Wellness debunked
People often think that advances in medicine have to be a novel drug or vaccine, an innovative expensive high-tech laser treatment or a new high-end surgical intervention, to be effective. With close to two decades of experience in the medical field, I have discovered that the simple choices we make in our everyday lives have a far more profound effect on our health, sense of well-being and ultimately how long we live.
Wellness is an active process in which we become more aware of the behavioral factors that influence our health and begin to make more conscious choices toward living a healthier and more fulfilling life.
High-tech, expensive, state of the art research has proved how effective and life changing simple, low-tech and low cost interventions can be. Taking simple steps such as making healthier dietary choices, maintaining an active lifestyle, proactively managing life’s stressors and improving the quality of our relationships will do more for our health than any sophisticated drug ever will.
Awareness is the first step in wellness. Sadly ignorance is not bliss when it comes to our health! Become more aware of how powerfully your lifestyle choices affect you – for better or for worse – then decide to make different ones. This is where organizations such as mine come in, we are committed to raising awareness of habits that are damaging to your physical, mental and emotional health and are devoted to guiding you in making better choices and support you in sustaining these for a life time. Your health is your wealth and as your greatest asset, your body deserves the best, as Jim Rohn said “Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live”. In subsequent articles we will explore the different responsibilities we have to ourselves and how we can take our health into our own hands.
Why wellness
Chronic or lifestyle related conditions are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the developed world today. We now see a steadily rising number of cases in the developing world, after adopting the lifestyle habits of the west. Dr. Denis Burkitt and Dr. Albert Schweitzer documented this over six decades ago as they worked and lived in Uganda and Equatorial Guinea respectively. They witnessed a slow but steady increase in the incidence of cancer, diabetes, hypertension, chronic digestive conditions, degenerative conditions, mental health disorders and many more, as the lifestyles of the individuals in these communities became more sedentary and their diets more processed.
Sadly advances in conventional medicine today are evidently not stemming the rising tide of the chronic disease burden. In spite of the significant strides that conventional medicine has made in keeping people with chronic conditions alive for longer, their quality of life remains bleak, filled with numerous treatments, endless drugs and invasive procedures. These treatments are not only tedious but expensive, accounting for millions of healthcare dollars. As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure! This is where the concept of wellness comes in.
Wellness employs a holistic and preventive approach to healthcare, recognizing that the individual is ultimately responsible for their own health. The world needs to begin looking more intensively at preventive solutions for the maladies that are plaguing millions of people all over the globe. The solution to the huge global chronic disease burden is simple, cost effective, accessible and achievable – PREVENTION, avoiding or reversing the onset of illness through the consistent adoption of healthy and evidence based lifestyle habits that ultimately reduce the risk of suffering ill health. The fundamental tenant of naturopathic medicine hinges on the premise that the human body has amazing self-generating capacity, all we have to do is provide it with the right internal conditions to heal itself. The ultimate key to our health and well-being is not external it is internal.