Total Health Magazine

We’ve come a long way from the days when sailors lost teeth, hair and sometimes their lives on long ocean voyages where fresh fruits and vegetables were impossible to obtain. It took centuries for scientists to confirm the problem was nutritional. The accidental discovery that a daily ration of lime juice (from which derived the nickname for British sailors, “Limeys”) would cure the symptoms of scurvy in short order, was of course, the beginning of humankind’s consciousness that we need vitamin C to survive and to thrive.

Recent statistics have good news for us. Centenarians are the fastest growing age group in America. What’s the secret to a long and healthy life? And, what can you do right now to ensure you will one day take your place in the ranks of vibrant 100 year olds?

The answer can very well be found in the presence of a small but potent molecule made in every cell of your body called glutathione. While glutathione may not have the same notoriety as other more high profile nutrients such as vitamins C and E, it certainly is a miracle molecule.

Have you ever wondered why an infant can eat food directly off a dirty floor and still stay healthy? Or, why you can be surrounded by a crowd of sneezing, coughing, sniffling people and still successfully weather the viral onslaught? We have one of the miracles of our human body to thank for our impressive resilience—our amazingly intricate and intelligent immune system.

Every second of every day it is waging a silent war against billions of harmful bacteria, viruses, pathogens, fungi and parasites. Without a vigorous and effective immune system, our health, and, in fact, our lives would be in serious jeopardy. Our ability to recover from any kind of acute as well as chronic illness necessitates a functioning and responsive immune system. When our immune system is strong, we are well. However, when it falters or fails, we are vulnerable to many illnesses.

An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study of chemicals found in human body fat through biopsy showed the wide array of toxic chemicals that each of us carries within. The “toxic load,” also known as “total body burden” or “bio-accumulation” occurs when the body exceeds the capacity of the organs of detoxification to reduce or neutralize toxins. Since the end of the Second World War, our planet has been experiencing a dramatic chemical revolution. Our existence, at the cost of our health and quality of life, now depends upon thousands of synthetic chemicals that are used to create virtually everything we associate with modern life—agriculture, health care, energy production, food supply, household and personal care products, and manufacturing all pumping tons of chemicals—most sold to consumers or dumped into the environment. A portion of these foreign chemicals, referred to as xenobiotics (foreign to the body), end up within the human body.

What does it take to actually thrive, not merely survive, in our hectic 21st century world?
The combination of relentless stress, a toxic environment within our bodies and in the outside world, and nutrient-depleted foods have conspired to create a perfect storm that directly impacts on the body’s ability to repair, detoxify and rejuvenate.

Unlike the health challenges of the past, which were predominantly due to infectious diseases, our modern health epidemics such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dementia, cancer, and obesity are fueled by a one-two punch of chronic inflammation and extensive free radical damage to our cells.

Solving the Mystery of the Multivitamin Part III

This article is the third in the series begun with “Solving the Mystery of the Multivitamin” and continued with “The Special Nutritional Needs of Women.” Here it is observed again you do not need to believe “men are from Mars, women are from Venus” in order to accept that men and women have different nutritional needs. Men lead in eight of the top ten causes of death in the United States. As it is often remarked, because men are more reluctant than women to seek medical care, when they do so, their illnesses typically have advanced to a more serious degree. It would seem that men, even more than women, would do well to adopt defensive measures to preserve their health. However, men should not depend on the supplements used by their wives or women friends. Some preventative measures are strictly gender-specific. The following suggestions are designed to help men take charge of their health while the ball is still in their court.

Taking Supplementation Seriously Part II:

Last month, we started a dialogue on whether supplementation is the appropriate course for insuring a nutritionally complete diet. We examined a very simple case, the multivitamin: a supplement designed to provide the base set of essential nutrients that are requisite for normal human metabolism. In response to the case against multivitamin usage (“proper diet alone should be adequate in providing essential nutrients”), we considered how 1) widespread deficiency of several nutrients in the U.S. diet, 2) the demonstrated reduction in nutrient availability in the modern food supply, and 3) the subclinical deficiencies in several nutrients that can result from caloric restriction and exercise, suggest that supplementation of essential nutrients may be warranted in some individuals. Here we expand the list of observations to consider when making the decision whether to include a multivitamin in your daily health regimen.

All of us want to be healthy in body and mind. We also like to be well. Wellness builds upon the health of body and mind with positive spirituality and hope for self-realization. Wellness is a prerequisite for reaching our full potential as human beings, and the key to being healthy and well is to have a soundly developed, personalized nutrient program.

Modern Western society as a whole talks the talk about health and wellness but doesn’t walk the walk. In these societies the food supply is controlled by big business, not primarily in order to support wellness but to generate profit. Similarly, the profit-driven health care industry mainly pushes drugs. Together, the bad qualities of our food combine with the toxic aspects of most of our pharmaceuticals to undermine health and wellness.

Focus on Health…

• Today’s clothing industry is a seven trillion dollar a year industry that uses an astounding 8,000 synthetic chemicals;
• Consumers have the mistaken illusion that synthetic fibers in clothing are safe;
• For over half a century people have been reacting negatively to chemicals interacting with their skin causing disorders like infertility, respiratory diseases, contact dermatitis and, yes, even cancer;
• The more synthetic clothing you wear, the greater your risk of absorbing toxic chemicals that can precipitate health conditions most often not attributed to synthetic fibers.

The venerated father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, has had many of his wise sayings immortalized over the past two millennia. Most of us know a version of the following: “As to diseases, make a habit of two things—to help, or at least, to do no harm.” However, there is one quote attributed to Hippocrates that has all but disappeared from a list of his most quotable quotes. Hippocrates poised the rhetorical question, “What is Woman?” to which he supplied the answer: “Disease!”