I can think of no other important topic than the health of me or my family. In fact, this is what led me to my chosen profession. To understand health we must look at 10 Fundamental Scientific Truths in regard to health, based on the research and teachings of Dr. James Chestnut of The Wellness Practice, an internationally renowned chiropractor.
1. All living things are composed of individual living cells working harmoniously together in a self-healing, self-regulating ecosystem to maintain homeostasis, health and life.
Our cells are genetically programmed from birth with all the necessary information to function at their fullest potential. Our cells are programmed for homeostasis and never dysfunction unless encountered by an emotional, physical or chemical stressor.
2. It is our lifestyle choices and our living environments that determine whether or not the proper ingredients are supplied to the cells to maintain balance and proper cell function.
3. Health by definition is a state of consistent homeostatic cell function.
4. Sickness by definition is a lack of consistent homeostatic function, or cells being forced to adapt to their unstable environment. Sickness is a lack of health just like darkness is a lack of light. Sickness in general is a lack of health; it does not exist as an independent entity just as darkness does not exist as an independent entity. Neither disease or darkness has any physical properties.
Imagine if you were in a sealed room that was light and outside your room was a dark hallway. When you open the door does light rush out or darkness rush in? Light would rush out, of course. This is because light exists and darkness does not. If you want to make the room brighter, could you look for darkness and remove it? Of course not. You can't remove something that does not exist. To make the room brighter you have to increase the amount of light.
If you want to make someone healthier could you look for sickness or "disease" and remove it? Of course not. To make someone healthier, you have to increase the amount of health, or the level of homeostatic function. This is why treating symptoms and disease never create health or prevent disease. This is why we spend so much money on "sickness care" but get sicker and sicker.
5. Wellness on the other hand is based on the real entity of homeostatic cell function, which is why it is the only way to create health and prevent a lack of health or illness. Wellness understands that health is you, it is your cells. Wellness studies how to restore homeostatic cell function and health, not how to treat disease and symptoms caused by a lack of heath. Wellness is not sickness care at all; it is health care.
6. The function of our cells determines our states of health and sickness. The cause of cells not being in homeostasis is stressors.
7. All health stressors can be divided into one of two categories:
A. Deficiencies in the required ingredients for homeostatic cell function
B. Toxicities that drive the cell function away from homeostasis
8. Symptoms do not represent an error in the intelligence of the cells. Symptoms represent important signals from your cells telling you that there is either a deficiency or a toxicity, and that they are under stress. Illnesses represent the body's best ability to adapt to chronic stressors. The cells never function incorrectly; the environment we put them in is the pathology.
9. In order to function in balance and produce health, cells must have all the requirements meet and be free of toxicity. Plants can't be healthy even if they have all the water and nutrients they require if they are missing sunlight.
The same is for human beings. You can't expect to be healthy if you exercise well, eat well, get your subluxations removed, and then not be self-confident and not have positive relationships.
10. Health is a simple concept. This is why all the animals are so much healthier than humans. These animals simply follow nature's laws and live congruently with the innate intelligence in their genes. Now when we take wild animals out of the wild and put them in captivity, they get the same sicknesses we get -cancers, depression, anxiety, anger, low sex drive, obesity, diabetes, premature aging, shorter life spans.
We are living incongruently with the innate intelligence in our genes. We do not suffer from genetic problems, but fail to provide the intelligence within our genes with the proper ingredients to produce health.
According to Chestnut, the major killers like cancers, heart disease, obesity and stroke, and the major chronic illnesses like depression, anxiety, etc., don't come from genetic disorders or "pathological genes." Instead, these illnesses have been steadily climbing since the Industrial Revolution, yet our genes have not changed in 40,000 years.
The healthier the environment and lifestyle, the healthier the cells. The healthier the cells, the healthier the person.
Emil Nardone operates Nardone Chiropractic in Wheeling. He received a Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Southern California University of Health Sciences in 2000. He is a graduate of John Marshall High School and Fairmont State University, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology with a minor in chemistry. He is board certified in accupuncture and corrective exercises.