August 27, 2004

This is a new feature at The Price of Liberty. I've long wanted to write such a column, but it's hard to find the time to squeeze in one more activity. Recently, the feedback from a few comments I've made in other articles sparked the need to carry through with my earlier intention.

Looking For Health will include information of interest gleaned from my extensive reading, with my personal and professional experience added to help readers understand and use this information to build better health for themselves and their families. I'm not a doctor or researcher; I'm just a nurse who knows that most people don't have time to search the Internet for the health information they need, and who usually don't really understand much of what they do find.

So, where to start? It would probably be most helpful if I outlined my personal philosophy for health and wellness first.

Health and wellness: Health is not just the absence of disease. A person can have almost perfect functioning of all the major body systems and still not enjoy real health. On the other hand, a person can suffer from one or more physical problems and yet enjoy a robust health. How does that work? It is a process called "wellness", which is why you see me use the two words together most of the time.

Wellness is a state of mind that makes optimal use of both body and mind to achieve a state of relative health. Physical perfection is not really possible, though the healthy newborn baby comes the closest. Everyone has something or many things that can or do stand between them and their optimal level of functioning and enjoyment of life. The real purpose of health care should be to help all of us find the right combination of diet, activity and medication, where needed, to reach our fullest potential for good functional status and enjoyment of life.

The mind/spirit and physical body are parts of the whole being. They cannot be truly separated, and the attempt to do so has been one of the worst things to happen in modern Western medicine. In many respects, some practitioners are beginning to see this and work toward changing their methods and outlook, but it will take a very long time before it makes any real headway in mainstream medicine. While we wait for that to happen, there are a lot of good things going on right now, and we can take advantage of many of them if we are careful. Don't make the mistake of throwing out everything Western medicine has achieved just because some of it is bad or has been used wrongly.

Just as with individual liberty, however, it is really up to YOU to find and nurture that balance. If you wait for the doctors and insurance companies to discover and implement this philosophy, you may well survive, but you will never find true health and wellness. You must take full responsibility for your life, health and happiness and find what works for you each day. Nobody can do it for you, any more than someone else can make you happy or free.

Wellness is also an ongoing process, not a destination. I learn new things every day, both from the outside world and from inside myself. I learn a little of what others have learned, determine if it is something that might be useful for me to try, and then work to apply it to my own life and situation. There is no one right answer for everyone in every instance. There are thousands of foods, herbs, medications, meditations and so much more that have helped people in the past with one or many physical or mind/spirit problems. It is not possible to know about all of them, and it is not possible or practical to implement all of them. Yet among them, somewhere, there is probably an answer for your particular problem. You must search carefully, learn as much as you can about a proposed treatment, and experiment cautiously.

Many people have a very unfortunate idea that anything that is natural is also automatically safe. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Arsenic is a substance found in nature, relatively common, and deadly poison. Castor beans are beautiful and look much like any other bean, but in its "natural" state it is a dangerous poison, both bean and other plant parts. The poison is, however, in the dose. Almost anything can be dangerous if you eat or drink enough of it, even plain water. Many things that are useful in small amounts are dangerous or deadly in larger doses, so it is vital that you learn as much about each thing as possible so that you can have the best chance of finding something that will be helpful rather than harmful.

There is no such thing as guaranteed safe, and the pursuit of this myth has all but destroyed our entire culture and medicine itself. Each breath we take carries some risk, and we all must accept and deal with a certain amount of risk in everything we do or we become paralyzed and psychotic. Think of the person who is afraid of absolutely everything. How long would such people live? Would they find any joy in life at all?

So, learn about what is available. Find out how other people have used it and their results. There are not a lot of clinical trials and research for much of what we have available, but find it if it exists. Think about your own particular subculture and the things your ancestors did and used for health. You will find a wealth of things to try, I'm sure.

Probably the most neglected component of good health is our nutrition, in spite of the blizzard of diet books, pills, etc. We have the richest and most varied foods available to us in America, but far too many people are either unaware of the real needs of their bodies or have chosen to ignore them. The statistics for heart disease, diabetes and cancer are loud testimonies to the foolishness all around us. In a country overflowing with food, most people are overfed and malnourished!

There are thousands of diet books available, but there is one sure and easy measure that anyone can begin to apply to their own life immediately and begin their journey toward health and wellness. Look for and eat, as much as possible, things in their original condition. It goes far beyond the hackneyed phrase of all natural. Buy and eat real fruit, not "fruit flavored" things. Buy and eat at least some real vegetables each day, fresh and whole as much as possible. Stop buying instant and pre-prepared foods as much as possible. These things are simply loaded down with unnecessary salt, sugar, fat and chemicals. Buy and eat bread and cereals made from whole grains as much as possible. Just yesterday I was able to show a friend how she could prepare whole natural rolled oats in three minutes and avoid the "one minute" instant that is nothing but oat starch. Those two minutes can mean the difference between vibrant life and death from colon cancer. Isn't that worth a little of your time?

Preventing health problems is of far more value than finding a cure after the fact, but the good news is that our bodies are most remarkable. They are almost miraculously able to heal and rebuild after long abuse if we can just find and discipline ourselves to use the right nutrition, activity and healthy mind set. Health professionals can help you find the tools with which to do this, but only you can implement them in your daily life. It takes determination, hard work sometimes, and the belief that you actually can do it.

I'm here to help you find the tools, and I look forward to the challenge. Your feedback will be very important because I will take your questions and comments as my guide to what you need, then research and write about it in ways most people should be able to understand. I am not qualified or equipped to diagnose diseases or make specific recommendations for medical treatment, but please feel free to write to me and ask questions about natural medications, nutrition, exercise, or anything to do with health and wellness. I will choose something each week to research and write about. I will answer as many of your messages as possible if you leave an email address in the body of the message, but I can't promise to answer each one. If you don't see your problem or question addressed in a week or two, please write again to jog my memory. I hope to have a lot of questions to work on!

Look for the current article and list of archives here.

Please send me your comments and questions too! Working together, we can be the "wave of the future" toward better health for all of us. Susan Callaway, RN