Page 2 Module 7- Health
Health – An Important Aspect of Life
With grateful thanks to Emmanuel Cheraskin on whose presentation this article is based
Medicine by act, if not by word, has chosen to shrink its horizons and to concentrate its energies and talents in the area of “sickness.” The vacuum so created for “health” is rapidly and effectively being filled by the nonmedical sector. Because of education it is inevitable that health forms a vital part of living.
Is there anything in this world that could stifle or erase the feeling of exaltation, the sense of accom-
plishment that comes with doing a job well… with painting a portrait… singing a song… consummat-
ing a really fantastic business deal?
To make a point let’s try a simple experiment
here and now. For example, please look around you. One in every three people has bad eyesight. Bad eyesight is often characteristic of conditions prevalent to modern lifestyles which vary across the world.
And so, we’ll be examining the so-called “health”
of the nation from the common cold to cancer. To
do this, we shall take advantage of two unusual data
banks.
As one who has survived the rigors of medical
center academia, I learned more than three decades
ago that the secret of academic success comes with
research… and the lower and the more exotic the
experimental animal, the greater the risk of winning the Nobel prize. With that in mind I chose third-year medical and dental students as my experimental models who qualify because they are generally willing to volunteer and are in good health.
The other data bank actually started by accident approximately 30 years ago when I asked a group of physicians how much they weigh. Then, about three weeks later I asked them their criteria for obesity. When I matched up their answers to these seemingly independent bits of information, I discovered that the average doctor’s concept as to who of his patients are overweight, is directly related to his own weight! A subsequent study convinced us that the patient’s eating habits must be poorer that the doctor’s before he feels that the patient is eating badly.
In other words, doctors and non-doctors see others – patients, clients – in their own image. The implications are obvious.
How would you like to live in a country which, according to the figures available in the United States during the past two decades, has dropped from seventh in the world to sixteenth in the prevention of infant mortality; has dropped in female life expectancy from sixth to
eighth, has dropped in male life expectancy from
tenth to twenty-fourth, and which has bought itself
this unenviable trend by spending more of its gross
national product for medical care than any other country on the face of the earth?
You know the country I am talking about – U.S.A., the home of the free, the home of the brave, and the home of a decrepit, ineffi-
cient high-priced system of medical care.
Just look for a moment at what some of the
figures mean. They mean that in infant
mortality they have been overtaken by France, the U.K., and Japan. In male life expectancy we have been overtaken by France, Japan, West Ger-
many and Italy.
Likewise, the South African Healthcare system has been vastly skewed by the private and public healthcare systems in the country, neither of which offers a viable solution for the entire community.
I know experts can disagree about the US’s precise international standing. And I realise that medical problems in the United States, Europe, Japan, and also South Africa are not identical. But the evidence overwhelmingly indicates that we are falling down on the job, heading in the wrong direction and becoming, as a nation, a massive medical disgrace.
In short, it is obvious that a solution is needed to solve the issues of healthcare provision.
We need a philosophy which fits the facts, and we actually have it. It has been with us for several thousand years and it is called the “ecology of health and sickness. Simply stated, what comes out as health and sickness on the right side of the equation is indeed a function of the environmental
* * *
environmental bombardments – the physical, chemical, the microbial bombardments on the left. The dominant opinion is the traditional approach to healthcare provision which does not necessarily apply in all communities for many different reasons. It is therefore up to the individual to find ways and means of providing their own health management system, apply what solutions there may or may not be to their own personal circumstances. In other words, take responsibility for your own health.
Whether we make it or not in this world depends largely upon the relationship of our resistance agents (our pluses) versus our susceptibility agents (our minuses). As humans, the point to be underlined is that our resistance and susceptibility agents are the very same, be it in respect of heart disease, mouth disease, or foot disease.
It is especially important to underscore not only the existence of coping systems in the body, but also the fact that they are measurable and easily modified favourable or otherwise by simple lifestyle changes. This is an exciting point.
For example, too much sugar can significantly alter our defense system – our susceptibility factor (our minuses). There are obvious pluses in the human body that provide resistance to illnesses, whatever the cause.
For example, at any moment we are generally constantly injuring ourselves and constantly healing. As long as the healing keeps up with the injuries, we stay well. When our healing systems slow, we become ill, and when they cut out, we do the same.
It is possible to develop a model of humankind. We like to think of a human much like sphere in the sense that any which way one turns a sphere, it looks the same. Apropos, any which was one turns a human, what one see is only the outside and this can only demonstrate the “signs” of disease, be it elevated blood pressure, a cataract in the eye, or pimples on the skin. If one peels off the outer layer, into focus will come symptoms, and symptoms always precede signs of disease. The next
The next subjacent layer is performance, and beneath that is biochemical activity. The subjacent layers are hormones and enzymes and deep down in the core is the blue sphere which represents our lifestyle, namely the air that we breath, the water we drink and the food that we eat.
These attributes of offence and defence by the human body are influenced by environmental challenges which seem to affect us from the outside and may be the cause of health and sickness issues. So lifestyle has an important influence on our wellbeing and the avoidance of sickness and disease. Learn good habits and modify your life to practice these good habits every minute of every hour of every day in the future.
The point is that to be healthy and remain healthy we need to adapt our Lifestyle by adopting good habits and increasing physical activity such as playing sport, jogging, cycling. Fortunately, in the 21st century we are able to modify our diet to encourage a healthy and productive lifestyle. Drink plenty of water. Avoid or minimise bad habits that affect the normal body functions negatively such as cigarettes and alcohol, and especially recreational drugs.
We can also train the natural curiosity of the brain by asking questions, seeking answers, and gaining knowledge about as many of life’s experiences as possible, and be knowledgeable, which in the end gives us power and provides motivation for in our lives. Successful individuals start this process early in their lives and grow by achieving their personal goals.