The lack of whole unprocessed grains and greens in our diet and the demonization of non-pharmacological and plant-based medicine in America created an air of suspicion of natural healing modalities in our lifestyle, diet, and medicine. This is changing.
COVID is our call to get woke. Here’s why: coronavirus is ripping through America because we are obese. 40% of Americans are overweight, compared with about 6% in China and 20% in Italy.
This national crisis of unhealthiness is one that we must fix. And, I believe we can, but lots of people need to get cognizant about health autonomy because corporate America took full-on advantage of the health problems it created and started developing its own “solutions”.
Contending with Industrialized Food, Big Meat, Big Pharma and the Western Medical Industrial Complex takes daily fortitude. But it can be done.
So here’s how America got so unhealthy; Although there is a genetic component to obesity, it is more likely that overconsumption of processed, affordable, heavily-marketed, sugar-dense but nutrient-poor food is the greater culprit.
Pre-existing Conditions and Co-morbidities
There are over 30 multiple comorbidities associated with poor dietary choices especially when coupled with a stressful and/or a sedentary lifestyle.
The comorbidities associated with being above weight are insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, stroke, sleep apnea, gallbladder disease, gout, and osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, arthritis, problems in weight-bearing joints, GERD, abdominal hernia and incontinence.
Certain cancers are also associated with obesity, including colorectal and prostate cancer in men and endometrial, breast, and gallbladder cancer in women. Being overweight causes depression, social stigmatization and discrimination which all can have a negative impact on quality of life.
These are not hypothetical scenarios; many of you know I am a nurse, and I have taken care of people with these conditions. Every 3 nights for 12 hours a night for 14 years . I know they could be and are on several different classes of pharmaceuticals. And each single drug a person takes has the potential to cause a different drug induced disease state.
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Toxic Stress
Even prior to the pandemic, Americans reported feeling stress and anger at the highest levels in a decade according to a New York Times poll.
These despairing times coincided with a rise in the US mortality rate caused by opioid overdose, suicide, alcoholism, and gun violence. CNN medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, investigated these “deaths of despair” in a recent Netflix film, One Nation Under Stress. Ultimately, he believes that premature deaths are “a reflection of the toxic economic stress in America.”
As America raced to modernity with plasticized medicine and industrialized food we lost sight of natural healing modalities and whole food-whole plant medicine.
Natural Healing Modalities
We don’t hear more about natural medicines and remedies because plants and plant whisperers don’t have a million dollars to advertise their worth.
Why aren’t studies investigating them more widely known? Pharmaceuticals are a TRILLION-dollar-a-year industry and views plants as competition for market share.
When holistic modalities work, why don’t doctors prescribe them? Because we have been tricked to believe that all alternative health is quackery, chicanery, woo-woo, or snake oil.
If western medicine truly had the health and wellness of Americans in mind, they would develop natural medicine instead of being swayed by pharmaceutical TV commercials and flawed pharmaceutical studies.
If prescribing MD’s just got a little braver there are natural healing modality studies already available that show the safety and efficacy of use. If they read the studies of the benefits of natural healing modalities, one thing is evident; the lack of a long list of dangerous and harmful side effects.
A Quick Guide To Natural Health
Ok, so here are some of my favorite natural healers. I like to start with whole food-whole plant diet. The list of healing foods and plants is endless. Just eat your medicine.
Start substituting boxed and bagged food for plants that come from the ground or off a tree. Use kitchen herbs unsparingly, they have phytonutrients that our bodies crave.
Yoga. It just makes sense to stretch your muscles and to move your blood and lymph.
Take a walk in nature. Being in nature is good medicine. Again, you are moving blood and lymph but you are getting the adding benefit of opening all of your senses to infinite possibility.
Breathwork. The simplest explanation for why breathwork works is because it enhances the natural process of taking in oxygen and removing carbon dioxide.
Many findings show that belly breathing can destress because it takes us out of fight or flight and into our parasympathetic or rest and digest system.
Cannabis Medicine As a Natural Healing Modality
My all-time favorite natural plant medicine healing modality is cannabis.
My personal belief is that the cannabis plant did not insinuate itself into humankind so we could chase its buzz. That is actually a minor component of its worth.
In general, health promotion is the goal of cannabis through a bodily system known as the endocannabinoid system. Let’s just call it the ECS for short.
Check out more details about Endocannabinoids system
The ECS functionally oversees mood, memory, pain signals, anxiety levels, sleep, seizure threshold, neuron growth & repair, attention, movement coordination, immune system/inflammation, injury repair, swelling, energy intake & storage, cell-life cycle, apoptosis, reproduction, hormone levels, blood pressure & pulse rate and bone development.
It’s also involved in the perception of pain and the response to pain. It is in charge of how well we deal with stress. It has a key role in reproduction function, embryology, and fetal development.
The ECS regulates many vital biological processes via messages sent between our cells such as metabolism, immune function, temperature regulation. It regulates many mental processes and emotional interactions with the outside world
So I will leave you to chew on that until my next post.
My belief? Alternative health is actually just plain health. My hope? These true healing modalities will soon rightfully coexist in the Western American medical toolbox and be used as the first line of defense in treating chronic illness.
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