People around the world are increasingly alarmed/surprised and
overwhelmed by numerous reports of higher and higher rates of cancer, obesity,
autoimmune, and other diseases. Why is this phenomenon occurring? Why has
the “war on cancer” declared by President Nixon in 1971 not yet been won? Why
is cancer increasingly viewed by the medical professions as a chronic, rather
than episodic, disease? How is it that the best fed nation in the history of
the world, in terms of varieties and amounts of food available, is getting
sicker and sicker, and fatter and fatter? What are the “right” things to eat?
Some wonder why so many people find it so difficult to lose weight and improve
their overall health. How do we make sense of all the various diets and other
advice offered and sold in the US marketplace?
As a Registered Nurse, my desire is to present an
understandable discussion of the factors that are likely contributing to the
decline in our own, and our nation’s health. We’ll explore a number of factors,
and more importantly, what we can do about them. Some we can’t avoid, but most
of them can be addressed in a way that minimizes their impact on our health and
society. Calling for super-radical changes won’t help (for example, ban all
plastics and electronics) because that just isn’t sensible. It’ll never happen.
Let’s educate ourselves on what is known about various detrimental factors and
what WE can do about them in our lives and the lives of those we love.
I don’t pretend to
have all of the answers. But, having watched both of my parents succumb to
cancer at young ages (62 and 59), a seismic shift in my thinking started to
take place. I was trained in the Western medical model, the allopathic model
some call it. Western medicine can effectively address anything, right? We were
taught nothing of holistic or other types
of medicine.
My parents came from families with members with great
longevity. They didn’t smoke or drink or take other illicit drugs. They home
cooked most of their meals, even raising many of their own vegetables. They ate
a varied diet. They lived sane lives,
not working like crazy or just laying around. They had pets they enjoyed and
seemed to manage stress pretty well. They had family and social support. They weren’t
promiscuous. They were not more than a few pounds overweight. My father worked
as a laborer, fireman, and later built homes. My mother was a home maker, then
had various labor jobs before becoming a nurse. She then worked as a nurse for
several years, but then developed chronic fatigue syndrome, then lymphoma.
In my own search for answers, I have found that there are
many factors that work against our health in one way or another. Case in point
- obesity. Until the last few years, many
people looked at overweight and obese individuals as lacking in “will power”,
or character, or some other keeps-you-thin quality. But, is that really where
the blame lies? Can we just “will”
ourselves to lose weight? If so, why is it so hard? If not, what is causing the
ballooning bellies and hips of Americans, and others the world over? We'll discuss this and more in future posts.
