What You Don't Know, CAN Hurt You

by Don Bennett, DAS

When I ask people, "How do you feel?", many times I hear, "Fine!"  But I have experienced, first-hand, that even while feeling fine, degenerative disease can be developing .  And if you're like most Americans, it probably is.  I'm not trying to scare you, but the numbers don't lie.

And like many people, you probably aren't experiencing optimal health.

Why is this?

   1.   Optimal health isn't good for certain industries:
(Health-care, Medical, Pharmaceutical, Media, and certain Food-product industries)

   2.   Public school didn't teach you how to attain and maintain optimal health.

   3.   Today's mainstream media wears blinders regarding the dissemination of objective, optimal health information.

   4.   Today's medical schools don't advocate a natural approach to health maintenance, instead focusing on diagnosis and treatment of disease and its symptoms, therefore,

   5.   The vast majority of medical professionals can't help people attain optimal health because they don't know how, they can only administer what they've been taught.

   6.   You've probably been conditioned to some degree to believe the following...

It's no wonder why most people never experience their true health potential.

Now ask yourself...

If I could feel better, enjoy a higher quality-of-life now and in the future, reduce my odds of needing hospital visits/invasive surgical procedures/medical treatments by greatly reducing my risk of cancer, coronary artery disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis and who knows what else, wouldn't I want to know how?

Now, if your first thought is, I'll bet this'll require tons of sacrifice...and sure, I'll be healthier, but I'll be miserable...", you owe it to yourself to ask this question:  If after attaining a high degree of health (where you really feel and look better) you were to realize that although you've made some lifestyle changes, you don't feel like you've sacrificed anything; and you're not only not miserable, but you feel better mentally and emotionally too...wouldn't you want to give yourself the chance to attain this?

Most people would...but most people don't know it's even possible, and they don't have the information necessary, so they're destined to live a normal life, with all its physical maladies, aches, pains, various degenerative diseases, and common ailments, and to live out what we've all come to believe is a normal lifespan. What we're likely to get is an average lifespan, and this may be the norm, but it certainly isn't the lifespan nature intended. It certainly isn't natural.

Please remember this: There's a big difference between NORMAL/AVERAGE and NATURAL.

normal: Conforming with or constituting a standard, pattern, or type; typical

natural: Conforming to the usual or ordinary course of nature

When you look at the people who have had their lives turned upside down due to their own degenerative disease, or that of a loved one, or you see those who simply experience a crummy quality-of-life, and die prematurely, and you realize that this is now a normal existence, health-wise...do you really want to be one of the normal people?  Or would you rather live a more natural life, health-wise?


What is natural health?

Let's look at the life of an automobile.  We can assume that if we give it the fuel it's designed for, and we maintain it by not doing things to it that would lead to its premature demise, barring any defects, it will run at peak performance, and "live out" a lifespan that's natural for a healthy automobile.  This means that even though you could put vodka in its gas tank, and it may appear to run just fine, you never-the-less would be shortening the life of the engine and other associated systems, leading to the car's premature "death".

If you loaded more weight into it than it was designed to hold, it may appear to handle the load just fine, but the additional weight would, over time, wear out and degrade certain parts so that you would not attain the full potential from those parts, and, again, this would contribute to its premature death.

And if you were to maintain the car according to what some well-intentioned, but mis-informed person recommends, you may also find that your car didn't last as long as it could have.  You may also seek out the advice of a professional who, unbeknownst to you, performs unnecessary procedures on the car, which wastes your time and money, and may contribute to additional procedures being necessary in the future.

Or you could educate yourself (much to the dismay of some professionals) and maintain the car on your own, or at the very least, be an "informed consumer" who knows when they're being given advice that isn't in their best interest.

The above analogies also hold true for the human body.  There are things it needs, and it needs these things in certain amounts.  If you don't give it these things, and in the amounts it needs, you probably aren't operating anywhere near peak performance, and you're probably not experiencing your maximal quality-of-life, and you may be shortening your body's potential lifespan.  (Please keep in mind, too much of a needed thing can be more damaging to your body than too little.  Most degenerative diseases today are diseases of excess, NOT deficiency.)

And let's not forget about the things your body doesn't need and doesn't want (even though you may want them).  These things are usually contributing factors to ill-health.  Do you really want these things?  Or have you been conditioned to desire them, for the sake of some industry's profit, at the expense of your health?  (personally, I don't like being "used".) Or is your body so out of balance that it craves the wrong things and not the things it's designed to crave?

What can you do to give yourself the best chance of living a naturally healthy life (instead of your health being dependent on medications and surgeries)

1.  Listen to your body...ignoring it can be disastrous.  Pay attention to its warning signs...learn what they are. The healthier your are, the easier it is to hear your body's whispers.

2.  Decide who you are.  Are you your own person, or are you, instead, someone whose behavior is dictated by corporations for the sake of their financial bottom line (to them, you are simply a revenue generating unit).  Who do you want to be?

3.  Question the intelligence of your actions.  Do you work against your body's natural desires?  If it wants to perspire, do you decide otherwise and seek out a chemical that will stop the process?   If your body wants to correct less than perfect vision, do you hinder this process in some way so that you short-circuit your body's attempt at correction? (I wore glasses, but no longer need to...at first I thought this was amazing, but now I see it's just mother nature doing her thing).  Do you wear certain articles of clothing that cause you daily discomfort because "it's what a woman/man wears"?  Or would it be wise to refrain from wearing things that could contribute to back pain, breast cancer, allergies, etc.?  Do you eat or drink things that taste "good", but bring you discomfort?

4.  Question things you took for granted.  Take what you see on television at face value...think about it...consider such things as agendas, motives, and the economics of advertising.  Remember, it's called television programming for a reason.  Do you believe that television presents information in a fair, even-handed, and un-biased way?  Beware of half-truths and misleading info.  The same holds true for other forms of media, and for things such as for-a-fee "health care" newsletters and services.

5.  Get introspective.  Question why you do what you do.  Are you doing it because you really want to, or are you doing it to conform to what certain industries want you to do.  If it's the latter, these lifestyle practices may not be in your best interest, health-wise.  (Remember, these industries have powerful motivational armies consisting of ad agencies, television programming, and a very influential "sales force" made up of your friends, family and co-workers).

6.  Educate yourself.  Learn to distinguish between mis-informative "facts", and constructive facts regarding natural health.  Read books on natural healing (99.9% of the time only the body is capable of complete and permanent healing.  Drugs do not "cure", only the body can cure).  Look into the "science of health" (called "hygiene", the word is now taken to mean "cleanliness", but that's not it's original definition).

7.  Seek a health strategy that bases its practices on scientific principles.  If it doesn't offer you an in-depth understanding of your true health needs - fresh whole foods, adequate physical activity, sufficient rest and sleep, fresh air, pure-as-possible water, not-too-much-not-too-little sunshine, self-esteem, laughter, and healthy interpersonal relationships - then you're doing yourself a disservice if your goal is to live at or near your individual health potential.


Thoughts to keep close at hand

*  Healing is a biological process.  "Health" results from healthful living.

*  Health is a natural state.  Your body is self-regenerating, self-repairing, self-regulating, and self-healing, but only if you don't get in its way, and only if you give it what it requires.

*  Health care is self-care!  Living in a way that builds, restores and maintains health is the key.

*  Health and disease are a continuum.  The same physiological laws govern life in sickness and in health.

*  The symptoms which are associated with acute disease that are generated by the body are important processes that are needed for efficient and complete healing to occur.  Suppression of these symptoms may have negative, and even dire, consequences.   To recover health, one must remove the causes of disease, and avoid the all-to-common mistake of trying to suppress symptoms.

*  If the trillions of cells in your body are operating sub-optimally, caused by un-natural lifestyle practices, their function is affected.  A cell's "function" can be: eyesight, taste, energy level, clarity of thought, emotions affected by hormones, sex drive, weight, body shape, skin tone, hair tone, motor skills...and the list goes on.  You've lived with your cell's present level of functionality for so long, it may be difficult to imagine how these functions can be "better" than they are now.  But when they are, and you think back to how they were, you may find yourself saying, "I wish I had done this sooner".

*  Each year more than 800,000 people in America die from preventable diseases.  There is health information available that can empower you to live a healthier, happier life than you ever thought possible; and this information will help you avoid unnecessary suffering and premature death that conventional living brings to so many people.

*  Even the richest person is miserable when they have a toothache.

* “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” - Marcel Proust

* “Be not the slave of your own past - plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

* "Happiness begins by facing life with a wink and a smile!" - Chinese fortune cookie

Sincerely,

Don Bennett, DAS
Disease Avoidance Specialist
Healthful Living Consultant

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