A complete strategy for optimal health

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:27 — 47.4MB)

Optimal health is one of the most basic and important values to a human life. Any quality of life attained through gaining values such as a beautiful house, a great job and a wonderful familty are vulnerable to being lost if we disregard our health. Any values and goals we achieve can amount to zero should we suffer ill-health.

Optimal health is an effect.

The appropriate causes must be initiated in order to enjoy the effect that is health. At the personal level this cause and effect relationship can be obscured by the passage of time as well as the body’s ability to withstand some abuse for a while in youth.

Optimal health is a choice.

Specifically, in any given moment our state of health is the sum of the effects of our lifestyle choices (actions) to date. In so far as we have the power to make our own lifestyle choices, we have the power to choose health.

Although health is our natural condition its achievement and maintenance require both knowledge and the disciplined implementation of that knowledge. It takes effort to put knowledge into action but bear in mind that the rewards are enormous and extend beyond health alone. Our self-esteem and sense of self-worth grow enormously when we do right by ourselves and look after our health appropriately. And although there are other factors to consider in achieving happiness, the pursuance of optimal health as a goal and a practice places us well on the way to a life of happiness.

Choose life – Choose health

Once we grasp that propaganda and disinformation dominate mainstream health ‘advice’, and once we have worked through and dispelled the many modern myths that obscure our path to health, vitality and longevity, we can piece together the fundamentals of building and preserving our health in our current world context. During my journey through this process I have observed 12 overall strategies that must be implemented by design into a lifestyle in order to enjoy the effect that is health.

• Optimal Health Strategy 1 – Think and act rationally. Make health a top priority. Take  personal responsibility for your health. Consciously and intentionally change your lifestyle according to a rational hierachy of values. Being rational and thinking for ourselves is essential if we are to achieve and maintain health, along with any other goals we may pursue.
• Optimal Health Strategy 2 – Maintain a healthy Gut. If we prioritise the health of our gut we necessarily tick many boxes for overall health. This means preserving gut function by guarding against leaky gut. And it means supporting the diversity of microbial species in the gut through diet, eating sufficient fibre, and several other lifestyle choices. Check out my Free Gut health Check List.
• Optimal Health Strategy 3 – Conscious nourishment. One of the things we all have control over is what we chose to put in our mouths every single day of our lives. It is also the most powerful tool in the box for affecting our genetic expression and our health outcomes. Learning what our body needs and what poisons we must avoid is both empowering and liberating. It sets us free from worry over experiencing chronic disease, and enables us to confidently plan for a long healthspan. The key is to eat real food and eat for wellbeing and taste, not just for taste alone.

• Optimal Health Strategy 4 – Burn fat for fuel. The body can use two fuels, Carbohydrate (sugar) and fat (ketone bodies). When we learn about these two fuels and the consequences of burning each we can further empower oursleves and support our immune fnction. We can cycle in and out of Nutritional Ketosis being mindful of our Insulin and Leptin levels. This can give us a lot of control and influence over our rate of ageing, our resistance to infection and disease, our mental clarity and our levels of energy. To burn fat for fuel requires eating a high-fat diet. It is also a strategy that prioritises and supports mitochondrial health.
• Optimal Health Strategy 5 – Periodically Fast. Simply not eating is one of the most powerful health and wellness inducing actions you can take. The myths says not eating leads to hunger, weakness and muscle wastage, the truth is that it leads to mental clarity as well as reduced inflammation and regeneration at the cellular level. It is one of the most health supporting actions you can take. Make fasting a regular part of your lifestyle – by design.
• Optimal Health Strategy 6 – Get Grounded The evidence is clear that achieving electrical contact with the earth makes available an unlimited supply of fre electrons. The process of oxidation that happens in the body leaves molecules oxidised. This means short of an electron and therefore positively charged. Antioxidants are substances that provide free electrons. The earth is the largest potential of free antioxidants you can access, and all you need to do is kick off your shoes. Sleeping on sheets that connect us to the earth electrical potential while we sleep is an excellent and convenient way to enjoy this benefit. Getting grounded is effective and free.

• Optimal Health Strategy 7 – Get sufficient good quality sleep. Get to sleep early and find out how muh=ch sleep you need. Sleep in the dark in a coll environment. Ensure that you are grounded and switch off any nearby EMF’s. Tryptophan or 5HTP is useful supplement. Avoid using screens well before bed and beware of Blue light and its disruptive effectson the circadian rhythm. Choose apprpopriate light bulbs in your living and work spaces (not LED’s or Fluorescent bulbs).
• Optimal Health Strategy 8 – Avoid internal and external toxicity. Firstly, this means not poisoning ourselves with a high sugar low (healthy) fat diet. It means looking after the blood through what we eat. Secondly it means not using toxic substances on our bodies with personal care products. It means keeping our homes free of toxicity in our carpets paints and furniture. It means sensibly holding our breath when a smoky old bus drives past us in the street. It means understanding that perfumes and fragrances are toxic, that fluoride in toothpaste is toxic, that mercury amalgam fillings are toxic, that Glyphosate sprayed on food is toxic, and that additives to food are toxic, that phthalates and pollution of any kind is toxic. And of course it means thinking very carefully before we vaccinate either ourselves or our children.
• Optimal Health Strategy 9 – Limit your exposure to EMF’s. Contrary to all the reassurances within the Matrix electromagnetic fields are not safe. There is a whole lot of information you simply must know about in order to make informed choices about your exposure. Check out this interview with Cory Hillis about the specific dangers we all face, and what we can do about it.
  

• Optimal Health Strategy 10 – Have a stress reduction program in place. It is essential to have a means of relieveing the stress in our lives. Whether it be going for a walk, meditating or reading, it doesnt matter what you do. It matters that you step outside your regular daily grind for a least some time in your week.
• Optimal Health Strategy 11 – Exercise. This is a masive part of maintaining health. The three essential components of exercise are stretching and maintaining our flexibility; Weight training to maintain our strength; and some kind of aerobic cardiovascular workout to promote heart health and other benefits such as hormone release. Fortunately fitting in the required amount of physical activity is much easier these days with the knowledge of High-Intensity Interval Training and also with super-slow weight training cutting down on the number of repetitions necessary. There are many myths to bust within the realm of exercise and I will be addressing these over the coming weeks.
• Optimal Health Strategy 12 – Hydrate: Drink sufficient high quality water. be very careful about drinking tap water. In most of the western world it is unsafe to drink. Here in the UK and in the USA especially so. It is loaded with toxicity. Filter your water or drink well water from a borehole. If you choose bottled water only use glass bottles. Also, it is not just about drinking enough it is about making sure you get the water into each body cell. Electrolytes are important as well as the structure of your water. Get clued up about the quality of your drinking water.

Optimal health and well being requires pursuing spiritual values too

For complete optimal wellbeing, in order to live a fully human life with maximum happiness, meaning and fulfilment it is necessary to achieve spiritual values on top of this list as well. I must be clear here with my meaning of spiritual. As an atheist I define spiritual to mean “pertaining to man’s consciousness”. So spiritual values include the needs of man’s consciousness such as; the need for friendship and companionship; the need for intellectual engagement, for art and music etc. We humans have psychological needs and emotional needs for security, meaning and purpose. Above all we need to set and achieve goals in our pursuit of happiness and fulfilment.

Be the manager

Optimal health and optimal happiness require us to consciously be the manager of our lives, to live it deliberately according to a plan or a philosophy. We have all heard that ‘to fail to plan is to plan to fail’ and nowhere is it more true than in our lives as a whole. This means making decisions about your lifestyle requirements and idesigning them in so you can implement what is necessary.

I hope this has been of value to you. Please feel free to join in the conversation and leave a comment.

Nigel Howitt

Treehouse farm

October 2018