You Must Change the Way You Look at Disease

 

This may have seemed true 150 years ago when Louis Pasteur came up with the germ theory of disease and felt that there were germs out there and some people, by a stroke of bad luck, just “caught” them. There was not much you could do except hope that the germ (or disease) didn’t show up on your doorstep. Then we found a drug for the bug in antibiotics–and low and behold–modern medicine could finally do something about disease.

 

In the 70 years since the discovery of antibiotics, we’ve been on a relentless search for a drug for every bug, a pill for every ill. The problem is, this completely ignores the real cause of disease.

The only way to get to the root of disease is to understand how your personal environment (your eating habits, stress, exercise, radiation, trauma and toxins in food, air and water) interacts with your genes to determine your state of health or disease. So what you can do?

 

Your genes are fixed. You can’t change them. That is called your genotype. But you can change which genes get turned on or off, and how that affects your physiology, by changing those things that effect and trigger your genes actions of expression.

 

Your environment interacting with your genes creates who you are at this moment–your phenotype. And that, you can change! Every environmental input, from diet to toxins to stress, all determine the healthiness of your body. It is like preparing healthy soil for plants. To have vibrant growth you must mix the right amount of organic matter, the right pH balance, the right amount of nutrients, water, light and air as well as safe guard it from harmful chemicals and organisms.

 

Our bodies are the same way. We need to have healthy soil in order to be healthy. In fact, Louis Pasteur on his deathbed realized this. It’s the terrain, not the germ that is the most important determinant of health. This explains why giving zinc to malnourished children in the third world can reduce death from infections by over 75 percent. It doesn’t stop exposure to bugs, but zinc boosts immunity, helping the children stay healthy.

 

So by believing in this “germ theory” of disease, medicine has ignored one of the most important scientific ideas of the last century, that our health is determined by the interaction of our genes and our environment.

 

In their article “Diet, Lifestyle and Longevity – The Next Steps?” in the September 2004 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), two leading Harvard epidemiologists, Rimm and Stampfer agree. They tell us that the benefits of studying and addressing fundamental dietary, lifestyle and environmental factors is more effective and economically sound than trying to find the latest drug or surgical treatment for chronic diseases.

 

As a society, the United States spends billions upon billions on chronic disease treatments and interventions for risk factors. Although these are useful and important, a fraction of that investment to promote healthful lifestyles for individuals at all ages would yield greater benefit.

 

Simply looking at what we put in and around our bodies every day would be more effective and much less expensive. Since the leading causes of death are heart disease (597,000 deaths per year) and cancer (574,000 deaths), followed by things like respiratory diseases, alcohol, toxins, car accidents, sexual behaviors, and the use of illicit drugs, we have volumes of proven empirical data that all of these have major contributions from personal lifestyle decisions, then that is where we should put our efforts as individuals and as a society.

 

We certainly can not continue to just treat the symptoms of these with drugs to suppress them or just surgically remove body parts as they fail to function because of them. I can understand that the information I will provide will seem a bit overwhelming, but you can understand it. Once you do, it will completely change your perception of the role of food and nutrients as well as your the impact of your lifestyle choices have in your physical and mental health forever.

 

This background knowledge will help you take full advantage of the Balance Protocol. If you know what is happening in the body, why it goes wrong, and how to fix it, you are much more likely to incorporate changes in your diet, behavior, and habits in the long run.

 

After all, It’s my goal and life’s passion to Educate, Motivate, and Inspire, YOU to do just that!