The virus continues to slowly destroy humanity, taking human life, putting magnificent pressure on the health care infrastructure, bringing society down to its knees, scrambling for oxygen to sustain human life, scrambling for bed space, doctors, and medication, for the second time in a span of a year. What are we learning from this, or is society proudly going to talk about being resilient and bouncing back with a strong face, like we always do when faced with adversity? Yes, it's a great attitude, to be resilient, but the time has come to be resilient and smart, to take action, that we have failed to take as human beings for the longest time, because we put our faith wholly into a medical system and science which is great, needed, saves lives, sustains living, but now has to be looked at more closely and beyond.
Human faith in the medical system was shaken once last year when people were furious and angry with the system, ‘how can we have nothing to treat this virus at a time and age that we live in right now? People stuck in chronic illness with lifestyle diseases like diabetes, COPD, heart issues, woke up to a rude shock and horror to see how they were more vulnerable to the virus and death. Till then they believed as the community made them believe, ‘take your pill and don’t worry, have a drink, enjoy life, diet doesn’t matter, there is no research that sugar is bad, enjoy your life ‘, zero focus on lifestyle, just prescription after prescription with no focus on addressing the root cause and addressing a change in lifestyle so people could actually have a chance at recovery and healing.
What’s happened has happened. While we sit back and watch the news, social media and more and more fear fill us, we need to now start to take a couple of steps back to reflect on how we are living. Why is it some people are Asymptomatic, some people suffer terribly from the virus, why are so many people able to heal from the comfort of their own homes, as advised by their doctors and some need a ventilator and oxygen. Yes, of course, everyone is different, but it's so clear that your innate and adaptive immune system, how you have lived your life, health-wise, lifestyle-wise, plays a major role in your well-being and recovery through this dark time. While the world may sell us ideas from medicines, turmeric, ginger, garlic, superfoods, steam inhalation, saltwater gargles, home remedies, etc, the important fact is what change are we going to make to build a strong immune system, community, and world?
Whilst we have pollution on one side putting a tremendous toll on the lung health of kids, adults, and the elderly, on the other side we have people disabling their own immune systems with the poorest lifestyle choices. Despite the fact, it is clinically and scientifically recorded and documented in several journals of medicine, about the importance of diet, exercise, sleep, emotional wellness with the functioning or the suppression of the immune system. We continue to ignore these powerful tools, we continue to live without using them to their full capacity, we forget that we all have an intelligence within us that is designed and working for us every second of the day and night to protect us, repair us, heal us, regenerate, detoxify, reduce inflammation, rebuild, but we compromise this through our poor lifestyle, self-medication and immense stress that we put our body and mind through, we don’t allow our intelligence to work the way it was designed, because we are constantly being sold quick fixes to make us feel happy, to allow us to move quickly through life, without having to rest, take a day off, take time off to allow the adaptive immune system to work its brilliance.
We have compromised our own mechanisms and yes, while we need the vaccines, medical treatment, it's time the world wakes up to ‘What am I doing over and above medicine, to prevent, build a strong system, and thrive? After all, I am responsible for me, I am responsible to respect and nurture this sacred vehicle, the body, heart, and mind. But many of us have outsourced our health, along with our responsibility, because we don't care, or we are too busy, and of course, we take it for granted, thinking there will be a pill of treatment for everything that breaks down in the human body, unfortunately, the data is different. At a time in the world where we have so much medicine, technology, advancements in the pharma and medicine field, the numbers and deaths to people with chronic lifestyle disease and other ailments, including depression, emotional and mental illness are at the highest. Does this make sense? Cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, plagues the world, does this mean the medical treatments and the medicines are not working the right way? Or does it mean that it's not enough, and to all those medicines and pills we have to address root causes and changes in lifestyle to really get better?
For the longest time we were sold that lie and today it's taken a virus to shake up the world, to open our eyes and to see the mess we are in, and that the only way forward is of course your medicine IF YOU NEED IT, your doctors and your LIFESTYLE...
We’ve been sold the lie to drown in science, but that’s all a brainwash and a distraction from focusing on what really is needed. We need science and we need to respect it, but we don't need to blind us from common sense and action. After all, there is good science and bad science like there is good nutrition and bad nutrition, etc .... science also told us thing years ago what’s good for our heart and brain and cancer and the same science today tells us the opposite. Science and research can also be rigged, controlled, purchased, and sold for profit and private benefit, remember that. So yes, we need science, we also need common sense and almond of our own to break stuff down and then take action.
We are at a point in life where I predict preventive medicine and health will become the center of attention and action because people are getting fed up, angry, tired of losing loved ones, tired of being sold lies. The truth will and will always be the fact that we are products of nature, we operate within biological, physical, chemical parameters that best define us, we operate in alignment with nature and circadian rhythms when we move away from nature, we create disharmony, when we realign, we create harmony at a cellular level, we achieve homeostasis naturally.
Do you expect a body and mind burnt out with the hustle and grind to really support your immune system?
Do you expect a sleep-deprived body to have a sufficient amount of energy to drive the complex immune system?
Do you expect a body riddled with inflammation and lifestyle ailments to really support your immunity the way you expect it to?
Do you expect lungs, burdened with smoking and substance abuse to really support you in the crisis?
Do you expect a liver abused with alcohol to kick in to save you when required?
Do you expect a stressed-out mind to have a positive impact on the physical self?
Do you expect forgiveness when you can’t forgive and the same with love, appreciation, and respect?
It’s time we introspect to see how our expectations and beliefs are false, built on false platforms, and then take the required action and make the required lifestyle changes.
While we will always need medicine, the time has come to holistically look at and assess our lives and lifestyles and wake up to the truth and fact that medicine, nutrition, exercise, meditation, etc all have their limitations, pros, and cons, but when integrated and combined together, the way it was meant to be, it becomes the most powerful preventive and recovery tool.
The future of prescriptions will no longer just be medicines, but food, exercise, sleep, emotional wellness tools, spirituality, and nature, these will be the prescriptions of the future that will bring about a change and the prescriptions that just continue to prescribe pills and nothing else, will result in the breakdown of human health, health care, and society. The model has always failed to work in isolation, it's great at keeping people sick and in chronic suffering, but that time to change is now, and we must rise above to first respect and take responsibility for our health and then use a holistic and integrative approach towards prevention and recovery.
Fear and anxiety solve no problem for us, wear your masks, stay at home and maintain social distance. When your time comes for the vaccination, take it with an open mind and heart, with faith that it will work and serve you in the best way possible. Ask all your questions to your doctors to help you reduce your fear.
And start to change your lifestyle, today it's this virus, next year it could be a different one, don't go back to that poor life of poor lifestyle choices and don’t let history repeat itself because we didn’t do the basics that we are meant to do. Build your lifestyle and planet. They go hand in hand to create an ecosystem that protects us. The human body doesn’t demand that much to do its best job.
We need to address and be aware of the root causes of our pain, ailments, disease.
Nutrition that is wholesome and in balance that suits our body type
Exercise and movement
Quality sleep
Solid emotional health
And beyond medicine also consists of
Faith
Prayer
Belief
Using the power of our subconscious mind
Love
Togetherness
Forgiveness
Nature
If one is on medicines, managing the side effect of those medicines.
Maybe it’s about time humans started to optimise all of this to build a stronger us and community ...
Remember, most of the money to be made is in things, services, and entertainment that leads us to live a poor lifestyle, and hence poor health. It’s a vicious cycle, which only we can change.
The writer is Holistic Lifestyle Coach - Integrative and Lifestyle Medicine.