Perfect Health

Few know optimal health exists, so few pursue it. Because so many of us are chronically ill or marginally well, we do not even consider optimal health a possibility. This is because we live in the dark ages of health when marauding bands of refined food companies and drug-touting physicians rule the landscape. Medicine advances but our health does not. We may be living longer, but we do so in large part by extending the lives of diseased people, not by promoting optimal wellness in the healthy.

Our goal should be to maintain optimal wellness throughout life. In the future, we will live to a hundred on average. If we employ all our faculties into truly promoting health, those will be one hundred vibrant years. We don’t want to end life exhausted and riddled with our share of chronic illnesses as is the case today. We should know what it is like to enjoy life every day we are alive—and we can.

But we still continue to set our sights too low. Like a prisoner or a slave who merely wants to stay alive, we hope only to go through life and avoid serious disease, or at least to slow down its progression with drugs. We don’t know that we should seek abundant health because we have never had it, just like someone who does not miss the pleasures and safety of modern times because he has never had them.

We must first realize that abundant health can be had and enjoyed throughout life, and that to have it we must make it happen. In dreams begin responsibilities. To bring our vision of optimal health into fruition, we must optimize the health of our body throughout life with the tools available to us.

The responsibilities of optimal health require that we eat a diet of whole foods, take supplements, exercise, manage stress, and seek spiritual wellness. We must spend money preventively if we wish to not spend it on heroic treatments that are too little and too late. We must see such a diversion of resources to aggressive preventive medicine as the most logical approach to disease prevention. We must do this as individuals even in the face of a culture that does not take such long-term goals like optimal health seriously. We must do this even though our media and scientific culture is filled with short-sighted researchers who do not realize that there is already enough evidence to suggest we ought to do so.

We will not be the suppressed sick of the world, whose illnesses are covered by medications. We will be the truly healthy, whose vibrancy comes from giving the cells of our body what they want—nutrients—and not what they struggle to avoid—drugs. The diseases we die from are not drug deficiencies. To treat them as such is to guarantee a failure. All chronic diseases are caused by the drugs purported to treat them or a lack of an optimal supply of nutrients, exercise, or spiritual wellness.

We first have to believe that optimal health exists and is worth pursuing. Then the idea of optimal health will take root in our society. When it does, optimal health will be as second nature to us as the idea of progress is now.

Let’s return to our medieval town. To stay alive, it must be able to protect itself from invaders. To do that you would want to build a strong city wall, but a wall alone will not keep a city vibrant. You must also stimulate the life of that city and its economy. Only then will the city thrive.

So it is with our cells. We live in an age when marauding cellular invaders dominate our environment. Smog, cigarette smoke, stress, refined vegetable oils, excess protein, and fried foods are all treacherous to the health of the cellular community. The nutrition field has been right to want to armor our cells with the right protective nutrients. Yet we need to be equally concerned about increasing cellular energy, the lifeblood of our cells.

Protection and energy are interrelated. A cell with more energy is better able to protect itself and build a stronger wall against invaders.

Good antioxidant nutrients protect the energy-manufacturing ability of our cells, so the two strategies work hand in hand. We must not forget the energizing part of our health strategy. A well-protected cell without vitality will die too soon, though it be well-armed. Defense alone cannot keep our cells healthy. They also must have a good offense: energy.

Energizing our cells may be even more important than protecting them. This is partly due to the fact that energizing our cells makes them better able to protect themselves. Without energy, cells cannot live. If you run out of energy, you take a nap. If a cell runs out of energy, it dies. We can’t let that happen, especially in key areas of the body where new cells are in short supply, such as in the brain and the heart. Your B Complex vitamins are the cell-energizing nutrients that we need to pay more attention to:

Optimal hormonal balance is necessary to live a life full of energy, health, and happiness. This is extremely important for a woman to understand. Our hormones are deeply affected by diet, lifestyle, emotions and environmental influences—including the many toxins and pollutants in our food, air, and water. Secondly, our understanding of the world and our place in it plays a hugely important role.

Our bodies are deeply affected by what we eat. A diet high in sugar and the wrong kinds of fats, added hormones in milk and animal proteins, harmful ingredients in packaged and processed foods, all act as hormone disruptors. Besides, young girls who visit their dermatologists for any health issues like pimples, acne, pcod, pcos etc are regularly prescribed birth control pills/ contraceptive pills. This leads to host of other issues and may affect emotional and reproductive health.

Similarly, a woman who has learned from her earliest childhood that her own needs must take a backseat to the needs of others is likely to experience an additional barrage of daily stress in her life—stress that has a powerful effect on her body chemistry, including her hormones.

I view food as medicine, and one of my first concerns is to make sure that my patients are eating the foods that can make them well, and avoiding the foods that can make them sick. Sugar, refined carbohydrates, animal protein, trans and hydrogenated fats, refined foods, preservatives, and artificial ingredients can be particularly toxic and are often implicated in hormonal issues as well as in many other health concerns. They are major endocrine disruptors.

Understanding this is crucial because your hormones affect everything: your mood, your mental focus, your energy, your sex drive, your hair, your skin, your bones, your muscles, your heart, your brain almost everything. There really isn’t any part of your mind, body, or spirit that isn’t somehow affected by your hormones.

Hormones like BP and Sugar readings are never meant to be constant. During fear, stress, temporary illness and loss, they are bound to fluctuate and may normalise on their own when the situation is reversed. Measuring them during stressful periods and drawing conclusions is not advisable. This approach may result in wrong diagnosis with the prospect of being prescribed medicines for the rest of your life. I see this pattern almost everyday while discussing health issues with my patients. The best approach is to give time, let things settle and then see. Once the body is given the right kind of environment, all these issues resolve on their own.

Following Changes Are Highly Recommended :

Eliminate the use of non-stick cookware. They are a major hormone disruptor. Avoid aluminium as well. Use 18/8, 304 / 316 stainless steel, cast iron or 100% ceramic cookware.
No microwave food, No refined products. (Oil, salt, sugar).
Use Himalayan pink salt or sea salt. ( Bliss of earth).
Use Desi Khand and organic jaggery instead of sugar.
Do not eat processed and packaged (dead) food like biscuit, bread, namkeen and fast foods.
No animal protein, dairy products like milk, curd, paneer.
No non-veg like egg, chicken , mutton, fish.
Avoid milk tea. Can have nut milk tea.
Avoid refined sugar intake as much as possible. It may give you instant energy, but in the long term it will only make you more tired.
Use cold pressed oils. Can use mustard, Cold pressed sunflower or cold pressed peanut oil, Bilona cow ghee for cooking. Olive oil to be used only for salad dressing and not for cooking. Avoid Canola oil as it is a hormone disruptor. It’s a GMO oil made from Rapeseed plant. It is not a natural oil. Coconut oil/ MCT oil are good.
Avoid the use of antiperspirants, deodorants, roll-ons etc. Can use baking soda instead. Perfumes should not be applied directly on the skin.
Soaps, lotions and shampoos must be free of harmful chemicals like paraben, sulphate and propylene glycol. If you cannot pronounce the ingredient names, do not buy the product.
Do not use sunscreens or sun lotions. They are highly toxic and are known to cause skin cancer. If you feel you are allergic to sun, reduce internal toxicity of the body and the problem will resolve on its own.
Eat a whole food plant based diet 100% and consume food & drinks very slowly like hot tea.
Avoid: • Packed food • Refined food • Dairy food/Animal food • Avoid eating after 8PM

Daily Routine and Habits :

Listen to Mantras and Chants.
Take 30 minutes of sunshine during the day (10 am to 3 pm). It not only helps with Vit D levels but also regulates mood swings and emotions.
Deep breathing exercises mainly Anulom vilom (10 – 15 minutes), Kapalbhati, Brahmari, ujjayi, udgeet. Try and do some meditation.
Walking barefeet on grass/ground will help tremendously.
Don’t work too much. Easier said than done. This is one of the main causes of fatigue. Everyone should take vacations and have plenty of leisure activity.
Get enough sleep. This means being able to wake up without an alarm clock to get you going.
Don’t exercise too much, too little, or too intensely. All three will make you tired. If you are a stressed-out person, don’t pick a stressful form of exercise such as running or aerobics. Try yoga, stretching, or walking. The general rule with exercise is that it should leave you refreshed, not wiped out. Walking is the best way to start.
Do not drink water or liquid with meals, Give a gap of 45 minutes before and after
Chew your food well. Chew your liquids also.
Check for food allergies. Eating foods your body is allergic or sensitive to—wheat and dairy are common offenders—can cause fatigue. If there is a food you love and eat every day, eliminate it for two weeks and see if your energy increases.
Make sure you do not have a yeast overgrowth or other digestive disturbance. Gas, bloating, spaciness, and carbohydrate cravings often accompany such problems. A nutritionist or nutritionally oriented practitioner can help you determine whether this may be the case.
Make sure you do not have any medical conditions that can cause fatigue. These include low thyroid function, hemochromatosis (iron-storage disease), VATA imbalance and a range of other ailments.
Resolve emotional and spiritual issues. This is important for avoiding the stress and worry that can reduce sleep quality and excessively stress the body.
Getting a good massage helps.
Take the right supplements if and when required.

Words of Wisdom :

Make health your number one priority. Be consistent and persistent. This is the key to wellness.
If you start following the above mentioned advice, your food will work like medicine. Because of this you may have to reduce the medicine dosage soon if you are on any medication.
Monitor how you feel. Take advice, connect with your body, and reduce / taper or stop your medications depending on the feedback that you get from your body. If you are experiencing any serious side effects or if your condition has worsened after starting the medication, do not ignore it. Refer to https://pdr.net/ to find out whether your medicine is responsible.
You must learn to spend some time alone, with yourself. Learn to observe your thoughts. Sit still and quietly watch the monkey mind jumping from one thought to another. Meditate.