"Let Your Food Be Your Medicine"

"Let Your Food Be Your Medicine"

Hippocrates (460BC – 370BC), widely considered the “Father of Medicine,” said “Let your food be your medicine, and let your medicine be your food.”

Over 2000 years later, this is still the single best prescription for optimum health. Our abject rejection of, and failure to heed, this advice is the single largest cause and unifying explanation of the lifestyle diseases that plague Western cultures. These Western diseaseses including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancers, strokes, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer's disease are responsible for most deaths. They have become invisible diseases to the extent that we consider them part of normal aging. They are not.

As recently as 1900 cancer and heart disease combined accounted for only 13% of all deaths. By 2005, cancer and heart disease accounted for 50% of all US deaths. This meteoric rise occurred at the same time the intervening decades heralded significant advances in medical care and the explosion of pharmaceutical drug use.

The most dramatic change in the past 60 years that negatively impacted American health was the epic shift in the American diet and nutrition, compounded by an equal shift to a sedentary lifestyle.

  

Over the past 60 years the concept of “better living through chemistry” has dominated American life. Big Agra, chemical pesticide and processed food corporations, the restaurant and fast food industries, Big Pharma, and the medical care industry, as aided and abetted by the US government, have all redefined what and how we eat.

How and why this perversion of food occurred is expertly detailed in Marion Nestle’s: Food Politics. In short, it was the result of economic driving forces and special interests pressure on a government focused on driving down the cost of food; combined with bad, fraudulent, and corporate-friendly medical science, incessant marketing based on that science, a media functioning as a corporate mouthpiece, a medical system that feeds on disease, and a public in search of convenience in a fast-paced world with both parents working.

We humans foolishly believe that we can function outside of the laws of nature and the driving forces of millions of years of evolution that shaped our dietary requirements (like those of every other species) without consequences.

Our DNA is 43,000 years old, the same as our Paleolithic hunter-gather ancestors. As such, our food and exercise requirements are consistent with those of Paleolithic man, as dictated by that DNA. Nothing more, nothing less; except that we eat more (especially more simple carbohydrates and sugar, and chemical and processed foods) and exercise less, if at all.

The basics of health are simple:

1.      Eat natural/whole foods: fruits, vegetables, nuts seeds, meats, and fish. Basically, if it lives, grows, dies, and rots out-of-doors (and is within our species specific diet), you can eat it. Cut out, or minimize, all dairy, wheat, corn, pasta, breads, grains/cereals.

2.   Stop eating chemically processed foods, fast foods and snacks, sugars, artificial sweeteners, and high-fructose corn syrup.

3.  Take Omega 3 fish oils and Probiotics.  

4.   Drink a lot of water.

5.   Stop drinking all sodas, carbonated beverages, power drinks, and so-called vitamin waters.

6.   Stop smoking, completely.

7.   Exercise at least 30 to 60 minutes, or more, every day: a mix of cardiovascular (running/walking/biking/elliptical, dancing, etc) and weight training.

8.  Get plenty of sunshine without sunscreen. Do not allow yourself to burn.

9.  Commit and connect: have meaningful commitments and connections to other people and/or groups.
10.  Cultivate hobbies, goals, etc. to give purpose and meaning to your life.

11. Stop using toxic body, hair, and bath products and sunscreens.

12.Commit to health and get off as many, or all, of your medications as possible. “Let your food be your medicine, and let your medicine be your food.”

Health largely boils down to your choices, priorities, and personal responsibility. Do you want to be healthy or do you want to be sick. The choice is up to you. But it is not a matter of what you want. It is all about what you are willing to change and do.

Certified LENS Neurofeedback Practitioner

Dr. Peter D May, Certified LENS Neurofeedback Practitioner

MINDbody Health

Dr Peter D May has completed training and is now certified as a LENS Neurofeedback practitioner.

LENS Neurofeedback is a revolutionary treatment. Whereas other forms of traditional neuro and biofeedback require active patient learning, and use some form of sensory feedback to specifically train the brain, LENS Neurofeedback’s remarkable success is based on a passively applied subtle, imperceptible low energy signal that frees the brain to fix and optimize itself.

Neuroscientists believe that the brain’s defenses against stressors, trauma and functional problems can create neural blockages, like traffic jams going from five lanes to one. The Low Energy Neurofeedback System’s (LENS) signal is so subtle that it can work around these defenses. Addressing the brain in its own electromagnetic language, LENS seems to open the way, getting traffic flowing again, allowing the brain to restore itself, and optimize function. This, almost routinely, results in patient reports of increased energy, focus and clarity in thinking.

Because LENS addresses and helps correct brain dysfunction, it works very well for a wide variety of conditions. LENS is very effective in treating the affective/emotional component related to anxiety, depression, insomnia, (PTSD) post-traumatic stress, impulsive or explosive behavior, anger, fatigue, and lack of motivation, among other things. It also helps with cognitive problems associated with ADD/ADHD, stroke, (TBI) traumatic brain injury, some learning disabilities, and more. It is also helpful in decreasing pain in brain-generated pain syndromes including some types of fibromyalgia and migraine headache.

Many people see broad improvements very quickly, often within the first 2 to 4 sessions: especially related to better focus, increased energy level and improved mood. Anxiety and depression lift. Insomniacs sleep better. ADHD kids regain focus. Athletes perform. Artists create. And, because the brain wants to be balanced and functional, once shown the way, the improvement, in most patients, is enduring.

For more information, a free consultation, and to receive introductory rates, call Dr. May at: 413.664.9050, or email at, docmay@gmail.com. Dr. May has offices in Northampton and North Adams.

Note: portions of the above have been used and modified (with permission) from a LENS brochure written by David A. Dubin, MD

Obesity in America: A Growing Problem (Part 1: The Stats)

Obesity In America: A Growing Problem (Part 1)

70% of Americans are overweight, and 32% of them are obese. The numbers, and the people, are only expanding.

By 2015, at this rate, 75% will be overweight, 41% obese.

Lifestyle diseases related to obesity, including: heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes are the top killers, and account for a huge portion of overall disease care costs.

These are preventable diseases.

The 15 leading causes of death in 2006 were: (Bold = obesity related disease deaths)

1. Diseases of heart (heart disease) 631,636

2. Malignant neoplasms (cancer) 559,888

3. Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke) 137,119

4. Chronic lower respiratory diseases 124,583

5. Accidents (unintentional injuries) 129,599

6. Diabetes mellitus (diabetes) 72,449

7. Alzheimer’s disease 72,432

8. Influenza and pneumonia 56,326

9. Kidney disease 45,344

10. Septicemia 34,234

11. Intentional self-harm (suicide) 33,000

12. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis

13. Essential hypertension and hypertensive renal disease (hypertension)

14. Parkinson’s disease

15. Assault (homicide) 17,034

• USA Obesity Rates Reach Epidemic Proportions
• 
  
• Eight out of 10 over 25's Overweight
• In 2008: 19.6% of children ages 6-11 obese
• In 2008: 18.1% of children 12-19 obese.
• 33% of African American and Hispanic children overweight in 2001
• 78% of American's not meeting basic activity level recommendations
• In 2002, 38% completely Sedentary
• 76% increase in Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 yrs old since 1990

• Surge in Childhood Diseases
• 
  
• New study suggests one in four overweight children is already showing early signs of type II diabetes (impaired glucose intolerance). Of children diagnosed with Type II diabetes, 85% are obese
• 70% of obese youth already have one risk factor for heart diseases
• As overweight and obese young people get older, they will require earlier medical intervention and management, and health care costs will soar.
• As overweight and obese young people get older the average lifespan of an American will get shorter.

Health Economics: Part 2

Health Economics
Part 2









YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO BE $ICK!

Medical problems contribute to half of all bankruptcies in the US.

“Every 30 seconds in the United States, someone files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem. Each year, 2 million Americans face the double disaster of illness and bankruptcy”

Shockingly, according to the same study; “three-quarters of the medically bankrupt had health insurance.”

Furthermore, the conclusion of that study is that no-one is safe. Or, as one of the study’s authors writes: “We are all one serious illness away from bankruptcy.”

How does this happen? And, will it happen to you?

As the adage goes: “The only constant in life, is change.” Or, as a young guitarist once told me: “If you ain’t gettin’ better, you’re only gettin’ worse.”

The same holds true for your health; you are either moving towards health, or on a trajectory towards disease.

Which way are you headed?

If you take your health for granted, then you are on the road to chronic disease. If you eat a typical American diet; short on fruits and vegetables and high on fast, snack and junk foods, juices and sodas, you are headed towards the medical trifecta of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, with increased risk of stroke and cancer. The same can be said if you drink to excess, smoke or live a typical high stress and/or sedentary life.

These chronic diseases, in addition to causing lives filled with pain, disability and medical bills, are responsible for seven out of every ten deaths in America. These diseases are not genetic and you don’t just catch them. Chronic diseases take decades of unhealthy living to develop. Therefore, they are largely avoidable, as are the expenses associated with them.

In short, if you are not investing the time, effort and money every day that it takes to become, and then stay, healthy; then you had better be prepared to spend way more time, effort and money it takes to be sick. But keep in mind, the studies indicate you can’t afford to be sick, and it might bankrupt you.

The best insurance is to maximize your health, thereby minimizing your chance of major illness. There is no better investment than investing in your health.

You need your health now more than ever to protect yourself and your family from disabling and bankrupting illnesses.

"The greatest wealth is health." Virgil

(Next blog entry: The Obvious and Not So Obvious Costs of Disease)