We as humans are living longer and longer. Since 1900 our lifespan has more than doubled. For most people this would understandably resonate with something worth celebrating. However, are we healthier as a society or are we simply living longer but not necessarily as healthy as what we were more than 100 years ago?
I remember asking a friend of mine‘s father a couple of years ago who was still very active and lucid in his 80s, about the incidence of obesity and cancer when he was a kid. He said that he could not remember any other children at his school being overweight. In regards to cancer, 70 years ago when he was at school, the rare cases that someone had cancer were seen of as a curse. There was absolutely no relationship made between causative factors and people simply thought that it was bad luck or evil. This is understandable as cancer back then was extremely rare. Both of these conditions are now rampant in our society, and along with high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease, occupy the five most common causes of death. Sadly, they are all avoidable and all a result of poor lifestyle choices. They are not genetic aberrations and they are not due to bad luck however many of us who suffer from them are told by our doctors that yes, effectively they are due to bad genes or bad luck. If we think that these are legitimate causes we more easily accept that there is nothing within our control that can be done to cure ourselves. In reality, genetic factors causing cancer and heart disease make up for less than 2% of all cases!
So if our lifestyle is largely responsible for the top killers, where does the confusion come from in regards to medicine being responsible for improving our health and therefore increasing our lifespan? This is easy to understand. For those who are sick, modern medicine is a blessing. Medication and surgical techniques have allowed doctors to prolong human lives to older and older ages. This however does not necessarily mean that they prolong human lives and at the same time at a healthy level. Many of the people who are having their lives prolonged, actually start losing their health at younger and younger ages. This fact is more evident now than ever. Sadly, many people in their twenties , thirties and forties are dying slowly even though their actual death may occur later on in life in the sixties, seventies or eighties. They are simply having their lives prolonged through medication and surgery. Hence we have longer and longer life spans but ironically with less and less health. We were genetically designed to shine throughout our life and pass away without suffering a decrease in quality of our health on the way. In the same way a light bulb shines brightly until it stops emanating light. It does not lose its shine gradually as time goes by. Human beings shouldn’t either.
This is where the word Health Span is more appropriate when we are studying factors that keep us healthy, longer. If we understand and recognise these factors we get ourselves a great chance to live as long as possible with vitality and energy. Health is about how we function. The true definition of health is a word called HOMEOSTASIS. Homeostasis means 100% cell function and this is only possible when our cells are receiving everything that they need to function correctly, and a minimum or nothing that they don’t need. This is based on their genetic needs and has not changed in thousands and thousands of years of human evolution. Most of our society bases their definition of health on how they feel and how they look and this can be a very dangerous way of determining what we need to do to be healthy. For example, some people wake up feeling great in the morning and die of a stroke or a heart attack during the day. Most of these people wake up feeling great. Many people feel great when they are diagnosed with cancer, while many other people look healthy after they have received that diagnosis of cancer. We often hear people comment “ He was the fittest person they knew” , or “She was so healthy” after they passed away. But were they really? Using these two parameters as a way of judging our health can be actually quite dangerous as we could understandably wait until we lose our most important commodity before we even think about it.
Using symptoms as a way of measuring our health means that we might only think about it when we lose it. Or in other words, when obvious symptoms appear as a sign to advise that a disease has commenced. Centuries or even only decades ago many humans would have lost their lives soon after a serious diagnosis because medicine had not evolved sufficiently to keep them alive. Now many people can be kept alive for many years and decades while at the same time being quite sick. This is fantastic news for anybody who is sick, as they have a chance to recognise the true causes of their illness and improve their health while they allow modern medicine to focus on their disease. If they become a symptomatic during the treatment, this most definitely does not mean that they are becoming healthy. They cannot continue to eat the same foods, expose themselves to the same toxins, move the same way, think the same way etc as they did before they got sick. Feeling good while still being sick is not a measure of their health. When symptoms are suppressed we are suppressing one of our bodies most important mechanisms to advise us that we are sick. If we do not feel symptoms this does not mean that we are healthy. And so the HEALTHSPAN becomes a more reliable way of negotiating factors that life puts in front of us that may threaten our longevity and the quality of life that we enjoy along the way. Lifespan is governed by giving our body what it needs and keeping it away from what it doesn’t need. Vital nutrients such as sunlight, a sufficiency of vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and phytonutrients, sufficient exercise, good quality sleep, happy positive thoughts etc become the components that our body requires. Toxins such as smoking, lack of hydration, inflammatory foods,negative thoughts, poor sleep, chemicals contained in personal hygiene products and cleaning products, pesticides and herbicides and many more must be identified and avoided. This strategy is necessary if we wish to keep the cells of our body in a state that is as close to 100% correct functioning as possible.
Doing pathological tests to determine our disease state is much easier than actually measuring our state of health. The problem is, if we wait until these measures are positive to act then we have already lost our health to a certain degree. We must hold the true definition of health close to our hearts and obey the simple principles detailed above if we are to enjoy all of the benefits that a healthy life gives us. Benefits that will guarantee a maximum health span while at the same time providing us with optimal energy, vitality and happiness and the ability to enjoy everything that is important for us throughout our lives. If your definition of health isn’t congruent with the one described above, please stop to question what is important to you. Stop to ask yourself how your life would be if you didn’t have sufficient health to enjoy it. If you are in a state of compromised health, also ask yourself if you could make basic changes in order to live your best life possible. Life is not a 100 meter sprint. It is a marathon. As such, small improvements in the way that we live it today will yield massive benefits in the way that we enjoy tomorrow.
If properly cared for, the body will last a lifetime.
