Most people understand the term “disease” to mean that you are a helpless victim. At the mercy of the disease process and maybe a bit of luck. My view is a little different. I consider that disease is a signal for the need to change. Change your environment and you change the disease process, hopefully for the good.
“People do not get sick from diseases but rather, diseases reflect a disruption in the dynamic balance between themselves and their environment.” Baker 1987. That has certainly been my experience with my disease. Faced with an arthritic condition that robbed my father of much of his quality of life, I decided to change my environment. I made dramatic changes to my diet, changed my exercise routine, and took key nutritional supplements and turned off my arthritis.
Nutritional imbalances play a role in many of the chronic diseases that we see in the pharmacy. Recently, I wrote about how rheumatoid arthritis is believed to be triggered by a modern diet in susceptible people. It may seem hard to believe, but rheumatoid arthritis does not exist in populations who are still eating a primitive diet.
Environment or Genes?
Dr Bruce Lipton (a cell biologist) wrote about the critical importance of environment in health. In his research experiments, he isolated a single stem cell. Putting the single cell into a solution of salts and nutrients allowed it to start to grow and replicate. Over time, the single cell became 50,000 identical cells. He then split these cells into three different culture dishes containing different biochemicals. In one dish grew bone, in another grew muscle and in the third grew fat. Remember these were identical cells derived from a single stem cell. His conclusion is that while genetics are important, the environment is even more important.
So what does that mean for you?
Well simply that if you have “bad genes” (like me) or have been unlucky enough to inherit a disease, don’t accept fate. Manipulate your environment to create the most favourable outcome possible. By environment I mean nutrition, stress, exercise and exposure to toxins.
How can Nutritional Medicine help?
Often we can help get you on track with the right nutrition. If you would like a nutrition plan specific for you and your “disease” then come and have a chat to us at Massey Unichem pharmacy. We can provide you with a list of foods that you should be eating and foods you should be avoiding to help you turn off your disease. We can also recommend what supplements might be beneficial.