Philosophical Health

Have you ever stopped to think about the philosophy of your health decisions? I know it is an odd concept for many, but for so many of you I know it is common. But do you realize how odd we are to the rest of the world?

I consider myself to be a bit odd compared to the culture when I make a health decision, because I believe like all decisions, they should come from a philosophical perspective first and foremost, and honestly find it hard to understand how someone with a strong philosophical basis on life wouldn’t apply that to all of life.

What I mean by philosophical, is simply a belief system that utilizes rules, guidelines and boundaries for some part of your life. The definition of philosophy provides one perspective that philosophy is following a philosophers belief.  Its funny, because I have come to realize that based on that definition we are all philosophers.  For example, a patient tells me that they believe they are healthy because they are thin.  If I ask them to give me their philosophical basis, they would usually say, “well, I just think it”.  Meaning that they are trying to rewrite the rules of existence based on their gut.

I don’t mean to jab too much, because the honest truth is that we all do it.  We take little bits of what we have heard and seen, and develop our own beliefs, even if they don’t actually match a widely published/accepted set of beliefs.  So at this point if you are thinking about the direction that I am going with this as it relates to health, you are probably thinking food. But in reality I am talking about all areas of health.  And specifically the one I want to focus on, is stress.

Are you stressed?  Why?  Does it make sense?  When I tell people that they are completely responsible for their own stress, many will fight back and point the finger at someone else.  A spouse, their kids or their boss.  Perhaps the economy.  But the reality is that you are the only one who can deal with you.  Nobody else has a responsibility to make happy.  It is you.

If you lose your job,  don’t stress,  if you lose your house, don’t stress, if you lose your loved ones don’t stress.  Sadness is ok, pain is ok, feeling lost with no hope is not.  And as long as you have a direction and a hope, then there is no place for stress.

I closed six offices over three years in a mostly upside down position with my company, I incurred an incredible amount of personal debt to accomplish that without firing people who needed jobs.  At the same time the IRS came into my life and found some errors that were far enough back that the amount of interest and penalty that was assessed was five times the missed tax amount.  There should have been sleepless nights according to many, but the one thing I do well, is resist stress.

Fighting out of that hole over the last four years has been a wonderful blessing.  Stress will never be an issue again for me.  I learned how to walk in faith, and it was so worth it.  Blessings come from all directions at the oddest times, and the smallest one can be the hugest step towards living stress free.

We have read enough research that places stress as one of the most incredibly important risk factors in heart disease and cancer.  Most of this has been centered around research on epigenetics.  Google that. It is an area of research that is really not more than 20 years old, and has really taken off in the last decade.

Break the name down, and what you get is “upon” (epi) “genetics”. Meaning what controls genes.  Old science thought that the nucleus was the brain of the cell.  This old Thinking was killed by the study of epigenetics, which has revealed that the cell membrane controls the genetic expression of a cell.  The nucleus is more like the gonads.  The membrane comes in contact with tiny protein markers that are altering cell behavior.  These proteins come from our diet, our exercise, and remarkably from thoughts.

Dr. Bruce Lipton’s book, “The Biology of Belief”, gives us the science behind this. It is pretty awesome. You are what you eat, drink, do and THINK.  Awesome!

So in the wake of this knowledge, be strong with your philosophical beliefs that health is yours, and that you are given a path towards what is most important of all of your health pursuits.  No Stress.  Think highly, don’t be stressed, and be blessed! Dr. E