HEALTH = GENETICS/EPIGENETICS + SLEEP + HYDRATION + NUTRITION + MOVEMENT + ENVIRONMENT + THOUGHT + RELATIONSHIPS.
No medicine, gene manipulation, exercise trend, diet, surgery, cosmetics or any other form of marketing will ever change this formula.
One of the biggest problems today is that health in the Western World has received an almost obsessive focus over the past decade. Yet it is the very economies feeding this drive which are programmed to perpetuate a state of ill health. The Health & Wellness / Medical sector forms a massive chunk of many western economies, economies which at their very core embrace the concept of perpetual financial growth. The concept of happiness as a "utility" is totally absent from the macroeconomic models. The very sectors meant to support our happiness, now feed off our ill-health, spinning reams of misinformation and generating masses of irrelevant products and services. Why? Simply because it appears there is more wealth to be generated from a sick society, than from a healthy one based on simple and obvious solutions.
There is so much misinformation and advice to be had, that even experience professionals must spend hours analyzing the latest scientific papers and newspaper/magazine articles to determine whether there is actually any genuine relevance to our lives. Many trials are funded by gym equipment or supplement manufactures, or giant pharmaceutical conglomerates, few bio-scientists have the backbone to challenge the status quo and speak out against those who bankroll their institutions.
It's a well known fact that the majority of health care costs are incurred during the final seven years of our lives. By this stage our wayward lifestyles have usually inflicted severe damage on our self-repairing mechanisms, and generally little is achieved via the pharmaceutical route bar symptomatic relief, or perhaps buying a little time. Ironically, but unsurprisingly, most government and private funding is focused on this lucrative period, whilst inexpensive and potentially 100% effective lifestyle re-education is ignored.
Paleolithic man ... the hunter gatherer
The most obvious source to look for answers is of course our evolutionary history. Although epigenetic's proves genetic expression or suppression can occur within minutes, the majority of our biological adaptations have been made over thousands, even millions of years. In looking at lifestyle changes, the largest recent changes have been related to the feudal cultivation of grain crops and the intensive commercial farming introduced during the industrial revolution. In evolutionary terms these have been far to recent for our bodies to have made such dramatic adaptations. Prior to this we see nomadic and semi nomadic tribes of hunter gatherers, living off local animal protein sources, wild vegetables and occasional fruits. These sources were also rotated due to daily and seasonal availability. The exact ration of macro nutrient intake would of course very to some extent according to the geographical location, but for all animal proteins were sought after, whilst grains and refined sugars where extremely rare.
Hunter gatherers are thought to have spent 3-4 hours in the morning working with the remainder spent in camp playing with offspring, eating and on crafts. Their activity would thus mostly have consisted of walking, heavy lifting and the occasionally all out sprint to preserve life or capture food.
By training smartly and at intensity we, are able to to emulate our primal ancestors' physical levels in a shorter time span (45-60 min etc). And with appropriate nutrition and rest all is well. Extended CV training, or resistance training sessions result in continuous periods of stress, which lead to raised levels of stress hormones and general break-down within the body.
Primal man thus offers the best cues to the lifestyle our physiology is still best accustomed to. This is recognized by many respected nutritional, holistic lifestyle coaches and performance experts, such as William Wallcott, Mark Sisson and Paul Chek. And instinctively on some level we all probably acknowledge this to be true .
Health ... applying the Formula
The average night's sleep in the UK is about 90 minutes less than it was in the 1920s, when it was nine hours a night. Sleep has a profound affect on the bodies physiology. Our endocrine (hormonal system) is closely synchronized with the circadian rhythm (24hr cycle). Prolonged sleep deprivation in rats is reported to result in increased food consumption and energy expenditure, followed by weight-loss and death. It's just as crucial for peak athletic performance, as it is for the general health of an office worker. Ideally it is recommended that no stimulatory activities, including exercise or watching television (the brain is stimulated by the brightness of the screen, arousing the hormonal system) occur after 10pm.
There is no good or bad food type, reactions to a diet will depend on your metabolic type. Metabolic typing is genetically & environmentally determined, relates to:
i. The bodies ability to harmonize the sympathetic (fight, flight, copulate) and parasympathetic (restorative processes) arms of the autonomic nervous system.
ii. Our personal cellular oxidation rate.
For further information on nutrition and metabolic typing (click).
Organic and fresh foods are the best sources of nutrition. The soil supports the micro organism, which in turn deliver the nutrients to the plant. Plants then covert this into biomass, which is collected by organism as one moves up the food chain. Supplements are generally a waste of money, as synthetic substances are processed as toxins by the body, and natural micro nutrients in generalized doses may not be suited to your metabolic type.
Cook rather than microwave food. Use glass or stainless steel cooking ware and containers (they do not leach chemicals).
Movement is vital for general health, and appropriately prescribed is generally more effective than any medication or surgery. For trauma and life threatening disease there can be know doubt of allopathic medicine's success. In many other chronic conditions however, nature has always had an answer. Take responsibility for your own health and learn to work with the bodies innate ability to repair and adapt to stressors.
Training without having eaten, strips the body of muscle (gluconeogenesis), rather than stimulating growth.
Poor diet and lack of vigorous exercise (recorded in catwalk models) can produce a lean physique with an obese body fat ratio. The body fat ratio is relative to water, connective tissue, muscle & bone mass.
There is little point in training if you smoke. Smoking drastically alters body chemistry, slowing down tissue repair and hampering the bodies ability to deal with exercise induced stress.
Training in polluted environments can cause more damage than good.
Dan Buettner's - "Blue Zones" - How to live to be 100+
Another take on lifestyle and longevity.
» Exercises¦Sport ¦Weather «
.
