The Best Preventative Medicine Practices I have found so far...

in #naturalmedicine5 years ago (edited)

earth-2841056_1920.jpg

Image by beate bachmann from Pixabay

Best Natural Preventative Medicine Practices

When I first read about this challenge for the Natural Medicine Community, I automatically assumed that the subject was regarding our go-to Natural Medicines for when we start to feel under the weather.

Upon realizing this topic was much deeper, and really asking about what we do as preventative medicine daily, I realized the answer was literally “everything.”

Preventative Medicine is a Lifestyle.

We have to individually prioritize the amount of effort we want to put into prevention, as there literally are changes we can make to every aspect of our lives.

“It is more important to prevent the occurrence of disease than to seek a cure.”
-Charaka
The Father of Ayurveda

Because my personal journey has helped me to understand how the health of Body, Mind, Emotion, and Spirit are all so integral to overall health, let's look at how we can practice being preventative in each realm. I am listing them as separate, yet they are endlessly intertwined and all part of the whole.

fruits-1761031_1920.jpg

Image by Dominik & Frederike Schneider from Pixabay

“Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food.”
-Hippocrates
The Father of Medicine

Body

Volumes could be written, (and have been) about diet. There are literally millions of books and articles giving advice on some new combination, though they seem to be focused on weight loss primarily. I think the idea of not putting bad fuel into a race car is something we could all understand.

We need actual food. If you can’t pronounce or understand the ingredients you probably shouldn’t eat it, rule of thumb. How much of the food we are eating is actually food, as well as how much is a preservative or artificial flavoring?

Today’s foods are lacking in nutrients because they are missing from the soil. Eat as much unprocessed, organic or locally grown where you can and even meet the people growing your food if possible. Look into superfoods, again with the least amount of processing.

smoothies-3809508_1920.jpg
Image by silviarita from Pixabay

  • We need to eat all the colors of the spectrum. (Grape gummy bears do not count for purple.) Fresh fruit and vegetables or Frozen if you can’t get fresh.
  • There has been some great research done on the need for the body to be within certain alkalinity. Think swimming pool. There is a certain sweet spot for the body to maintain a level of health before it is more susceptible to sickness and disease.
  • Hydration! Anything besides water does not do for the body what water does. Period. As much as I have tried to argue to the Cosmos that coffee is made using mostly water, I still end up way too acidic if I don't hydrate properly. If you think water is too plain, add some lemon, orange, lime, strawberry, mint, cucumber or whatever natural flavor you prefer.

water-2232732_1920.jpg
Image by silviarita from Pixabay

  • Movement. We need to move around, circulate the blood, increase the breathing rate and pump the lymphatic system which is a giant filter for our body. Yogais great for this, especially if you take the time to do some deep breathing. Keeping your muscles and spine flexible is key to longevity. Never too late to start.

  • Exposure. This covers everything from the condition of the water you bathe in, to the products you use on your body. Skin absorbs everything. Keep it simple and natural, those chemicals take the normal energy allotment of your body to get through the day and redirect a portion to filter out the toxins. A lot of diseases are present because of these toxic build ups in our bodies.

  • Environment (This includes the mind and emotions.)

brain-2146157_1920.jpgImage by ElisaRiva from Pixabay

In today's day and age, detoxing from the environmental factors we each individually face worldwide would be beneficial (and needed). We can detox on a Mind, Body, Emotional and Spiritual level.

What is present in our food, water, air, soil, products, and social environment affects us on every level.

Today our soil, food, and water have compounds in it that are harmful, and many health concerns have come up due to the increased amount we are exposed to.

lotus divider.png

Here are just some examples in your immediate environment:

City water
Food
Body Care Products
Medicines
Air Quality
Personal interactions with Nature
Social Environments
Overall Stress
Our actions and words
Being mindful of our thoughts
What we spend our money on
What we feed our minds
Posture
Stretching
If we smile or not
Our “Free-Time”
Conscious breathing.
How we frame our perceptions

We can create a toxic environment in our own bodies with our own thoughts.

mindset-743163_1920.jpg
Image by John Hain from Pixabay

Mind & Emotion

The way we choose to frame our thoughts to the seemingly random things we find ourselves thinking, all affect our Physiology.

“For example, research shows that psychological stress affects our levels of catecholamines, which include the neurotransmitters dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. These neurochemical changes prepare the body to deal with perceived danger in a number of important ways, such as raising blood pressure so as to allow faster speed and response time. However, chronic elevations in catecholamines suppress the immune system, and suppression of the immune system raises the risk of viral infection and other diseases.”

-Psychology Today

Humans are the only beings on the planet whose minds will run wild on made-up scenarios about the future. We will give ourselves anxiety, insomnia, depression and many types of stress-related diseases because we fear an outcome.

In essence what we are doing is causing harmful chemicals to be dumped into our systems, by allowing our minds to run free and give us the possibility of multiple negative situations. The reality is that only one can happen, and it will happen in a set parameter of time.

Say we are stressing out about an event that will happen in three weeks. We imagine every possible thing going wrong, and experience a certain level of emotion regarding those outcomes. We will literally spend weeks dragging out something that will only take an hour or two.

What if the imagined outcome of the situation we feared turned out to be very positive? What did we just do to ourselves?

stress-1837384_1920.png
Image by John Hain from Pixabay

Quick, which would you rather be: late to work or lunch for a lion? The stress response we have today is out of sync with current needs. But it once was a Jurassic perk.
Nowadays, we are bombarded with what might be called the mythology of stress, which suggests that our psychological and physiological well-being is constantly threatened by degrees of stress unparalleled in history. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
What are some of these real or perceived stressors with which we continually do battle? Coping with rush-hour traffic, job and financial difficulties, troubled relationships, and family problems are just a few of hundreds of stressful stimuli that can be identified.
Anxiety over personal problems (will I be able to pay the rent this month?), or more global concerns (will there be another war?) is another type of stress that we all encounter much too often.
Nonetheless, anxiety and these other stressors are not immediate threats to survival, even if they do raise our blood pressure a bit now and then. Of greater concern is that the internal defense mechanisms of the body respond to these types of psychological stimuli in the same way as they would respond to life-threatening ones.
Why is this unfortunate? Because over the long haul, excess release of potent stress-fighting factors like the adrenal-gland hormones cortisol and epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) can suppress the immune system, cause ulcers, produce muscle atrophy, elevate blood sugar, place excessive demands on the heart, and eventually lead to the death of certain brain cells.
A person in the midst of a divorce does not require the hormonal, neuronal, and metabolic responses of someone who falls through thin ice on a wintry pond—yet in both cases, the same internal changes are occurring.”

-Psychology Today "Stress it's worse than you think."

yoga-2150140_1920.png
Image by 3333873 from Pixabay

Preventative Mind, Emotion & Spirit Medicine

  1. Be impeccable with your word.
  2. Don't take anything personally.
  3. Don't make assumptions.
  4. Always do your best.

-The Four Agreements, Ancient Toltec Knowledge

The people I have found to be the happiest in life adhere to similar principles. They all seem to have found something they love doing, whether they are paid for it or not. They have a sense of humor. They make day to day choices that balance needs and wants and have a relationship with Nature. They live within their means and express appreciation and gratitude often.

Take a deep breath, unclench your forehead, and relax your shoulders. There is a myriad of choices we can make and infinite things to try in the world. We will be delving deeper into each of these topics on our journey together through the many facets of Well~being in the @NaturalMedicine Community.

3W72119s5BjVxiq1Y1uwJm7GMvLTqEXhMB4s4Vsivzx75qBBG5n2zbatpdeDKZatdZxK253ydoTotRnUev5Hxj9HrjRMEz4tbXK2X2miKKtZY7GC5BxwSm.gif

This was written in response to NATURAL MEDICINE's wisdom challenge which asks what preventative medicines we might use for ourselves, or the earth. Pop over to @naturalmedicine for more information - you can win their native token, LOTUS, or up to 40 Steem!

Agiftoflove.jpg

Sort:  

This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here

Thank you so much! I really appreciate that!

Congratulations @agiftoflove! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You received more than 50 as payout for your posts. Your next target is to reach a total payout of 100

You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

To support your work, I also upvoted your post!

You can upvote this notification to help all Steem users. Learn how here!

Thank you so much @steemitboard! I appreciate your support!

Perfect synergy for our well being! All depending on the other! Thank you for sharing, it was a pleasure to read it and mostly to remember that stress is one of our top enemies. :)

Thank you @missdeli! I am glad this resonates with you.

yes yes yes it is a lifestyle, it is the choices we make and we really need to spread more awareness about it. You have included so much in this post and it resonates we me so much. everything we do should be for our greater good and the greater good of all in nature xxx

Thank you @trucklife-family! I started to write this a week and a half ago, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that everything we do is either harmful, neutral or preventative. It was difficult to not make it 18 pages!! lol Such a great topic for the @Naturalmedicine challenge. I foresee many smaller detailed posts about this in the future. :-) I love what you are writing too! <3

Grape gummy bears do not count for purple.

DAMMIT!!! Is that the same kind of logic my husband uses when he says tomato sauce is a vegetable? Just joking. We eat REAL food around our place, that's for sure! And although my hubby believes tea counts as a liquid (he's English) I'm constantly forcing water with lime or lemon down his gullet. Great response - love how you focus on mind, body, spirit. xxx

Haha! Real food is so important. Tomato sauce might be on the line of a vegetable? (especially if it's made with love!). Tea is a medicine sometimes? Coffee is morning medicine? lol Thank you for your vote and comment!

Fabulous!!

Not much to say that hasn't already been said. As mentioned elsewhere, we're all on the same page (more or less).

Thanks for your entry....!!!

😊🙏🏽☯️

Thank you @metamatheus! I appreciate your time in reading this. :-)

Yes to it all! I have so enjoyed reading the entries to this round. Everyone has done a fantastic job of relating why lifestyle as a whole is so important. I love the extra attention to stress, as well. Really makes you stop and think about where you are spending your energy. I have a tendency to take things personally sometimes, so I know I can do better in that area. I have a family member who has been totally ripped apart by stress. She has so many physical ailments as a result of not being able to handle daily stresses. It has been really challenging to deal with because she seems to only want to focus on the physical healing and can't seem to prioritize the emotional/spiritual aspect.

Thank you @plantstoplanks! I see it too, so much. How we can manifest these symptoms that are only being treated with medications on the physical level, yet they are caused by disharmony in our thoughts. Trapped emotions and trauma are physically debilitating. I do hope it becomes more mainstream acceptible to understand the power we have in our daily choices to deal with and heal the subtle causes. I once recommended to a friend who was facing the decision to be put on a lifetime of blood pressure meds, to make a lifestyle change first, to see. He bought a motorcycle and found some time to do what he loved riding around beautiful places. Twenty years later he has managed his stress, causing his blood pressure to drop. No meds. Stress is still there, but he knows he has choices to deal with it. :-) Everyone needs to find what their individual "motorcycle" is. :-)

This post is just filled to the brim with good stuff. Love it!

This paragraph really made me smile:

The people I have found to be the happiest in life adhere to similar principles. They all seem to have found something they love doing, whether they are paid for it or not. They have a sense of humor. They make day to day choices that balance needs and wants and have a relationship with Nature. They live within their means and express appreciation and gratitude often.

As I seem to tick most of these boxes, it shows me that I'm on the right path. The next thing to work on is to smile even more and get less often stuck in ( worries and regrets concerning ) the past or the future.

Have a great day!

Um abraço

Thank you @vincentnijman! I am so glad you liked it. There really are endless things to write about the daily lifestyle of wellbeing. The coolest thing is that it would be different for everyone.

Getting in sync with the mind is a lifetime achievement! You definitely sound like you are on the right path! Have a Great Day yourself, as well.

Getting in sync with the mind is a lifetime achievement!

True that and life is a daily and never ending learning experience

And thank you, in return, for your kind words :>)