THERE is nothing on earth more amazing, more wonderful, than the human body. Even the most powerful computers and artificial intelligent robots we have today still pale in comparison. The most sophisticated artificial heart, liver, pancreas, kidneys (dialysis machines) are so large, bulky, much less efficient, cumbersome, inconvenient, fully dependent on limited power source, and fraught with complications when implanted, not to mention most expensive and still impractical.
All our organs are self-contained within our body, came free with our body when we were born, with its own auto-power-generator for energy (fuel), very efficient, functioning automatically, chemically and intricately in-sync with our entire system, and responding to our thinking, feelings, and activities. It also has a built-in chemical laboratory, which processes the food and drink we ingest into energy, maintaining a healthy level of glucose (blood sugar) and all hormones, enzymes, minerals, electrolytes, with the help of our GI system, liver, pancreas, and endocrine glands. Medications we take are converted to molecular substances that help heal our ailments. Our body maintains normal homeostasis, automatically keeping our entire internal environment on an even keel, and in maximal electrolyte and acid-base balance at all times. Its inherent immune system protects it from infections and diseases.
Hormones are produced by our body when our glucose level is low which tells our stomach to feel hungry, and another hormone tells us when we are full and to stop eating. When we ingest anything alkaline, the buffer system automatically adjusts to neutralize the alkali, to preserve our homeostatic balance. When we sense danger, or are angry or upset, our glands automatically produce adrenalin to prepare us in protecting our body. When we laugh, sing, eat chocolate, or are in a happy countenance, our system excretes happy hormones that soothe us and prevent depression. When exposed to hot or cold weather, our system has an auto-adjust thermoregulator to keep us comfortable.
“Octane” in food
And like a vehicle or any engine, what fuel we put into them (like what food or drink we put into our mouth) will greatly determine how well the engine (or our body) functions and lasts. Healthy lifestyle must start from the womb and dieting initiated in the crib to protect the DNA from damage, as advocated in the pro-active and pre-emptive book on disease prevention, Let’s Stop “Killing” Our Children, which is listed in the U.S. Library of Congress (featured in amazon.com)
The common impression and conventional belief that major diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and even cancers, are the “natural” and expected illnesses of old age is scientifically inaccurate and flawed. These diseases could be prevented, avoided or minimized by protecting the DNA from damages from the time we are born. The human body, if properly cared for from day one by shielding the DNA from any destruction while in the womb and in the crib, could be “exempt” from developing the wrongly-termed “natural and normal diseases of middle to old age.”
Today, living a healthy lifestyle starts when we reach our teenage years, marking 13 or more years of unprotected or un-maximized DNA protection. A healthy lifestyle must start from the womb and dieting begun in the crib purposely to protect the DNA and stave off having those major illnesses which we now attribute to aging. Yes, future children do not have to acquire those diseases when they grow up to maturity or seniority. The human species can pro-actively preempt these common major illnesses that afflict almost all of us today!
Diet and exercise
Exercise is great and most valuable, but diet appears to be of greater significance to many persons when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle. Of course, not taking in toxic substances such as tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs and other harmful substances, behavioral modification, and stress management, are vital to health. For those with arthritis and other inflammatory diseases, a variety of vegetables called nightshades cause exacerbation and pain. They include tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, paprika, and peppers.
Evidence-based clinical data show that together with daily physical exercise, a low-carb diet, consuming a lot of multi-colored vegetables, with some nuts and fruits (calories adjusted for diabetics and weight-watchers), eating minimal or no red meat at all, and staying away from processed meats, is the healthy prescription for optimum health and maximal longevity.
It is obvious that a healthy lifestyle could outweigh genetics in most cases, and that our health is not only within our reach, but is actually in our hands.
Medical self-care
Talking about a healthy lifestyle reminds me of my mother, who passed away in Raleigh, North Carolina on November 8, 2019, at age 102, and was interned last November 15. The way she managed her own health was evidently a great factor in her longevity, a strategy worthy of medical mention.
My mom had diabetes and high blood pressure, but no arthritis until the end. She was a health freak, doing her own finger-stick herself to monitor her blood sugar level three times a day to guide her on how she should adjust her caloric intake and medications. She did all this herself for more than 4 decades, following her physician’s instructions. She also took her blood pressure and adjusted her pills, with the help of my three sisters, one of them an RN. My mother was doing daily exercise, watching and following Leslie Sansone video exercises, a routine she did up to her mid-90s.
While she loved pork, she concentrated more on oatmeal for breakfast and mostly ate fish and vegetables for lunch and dinner. She was very compliant with her medications and vigilant in her food intake. She was able to ambulate with a walker and do all this, with her brilliant mind and a memory better than mine, till she developed pneumonia and renal failure about three weeks ago. Pneumonia is usually deadly for seniors.
I alluded to my mom’s diligence in her own healthcare to highlight the importance of a disciplined self-restricting (no tobacco, alcohol or illicit drugs) behavior, diet, exercise, compliance in medications, and a positive attitude in life. She listened to her body seriously. Whatever imperfections her genes may have had, it seemed obvious that her system was able to neutralize and compensate for them through a healthy lifestyle. Indeed, living a healthy lifestyle could far outweigh genetics and maximize health and longevity.
***
Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus in Northwest Indiana and chairman of cardiac surgery from 1997 to 2010 at Cebu Doctors University Hospital, where he holds the title of Physician Emeritus in Surgery, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine College of Surgeons, and the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society. He is the chairman of the Filipino United Network – USA, a 501(c)(3) humanitarian foundation in the United States. Email: [email protected]
