How do you define Health?

"Health is a dynamic condition of wholeness and balance that allows us to move through life and not succumb to malfunctions of our own physiology or suffer harm from all the potentially damaging influences we encounter. If you are healthy, you can interact with germs and not get infections, with allergens and not have allergic reactions, with toxins and not be harmed. Moreover, a healthy person has a reserve of energy that allows for fulfilling engagement with life. The essential qualities of health are resilience and energy."

-Dr. Andrew Weil, MD

That is a great quote from Dr. Weil because it encompasses the many pieces of the health puzzle.  Just as a puzzle is incomplete without all its pieces, our health is incomplete without all of its pieces as well.  Let's take a look at those different pieces from the quote.

"Health is a dynamic condition of wholeness and balance that allows us to move through life and not succumb to malfunctions of our own physiology or suffer harm from the potentially damaging influences we encounter."  This first statement indicates that health is not an end point.  We do not arrive at health and stay there for ever.  Our health is dynamic, it is changing.  Our health has peaks and valleys due to the many factors that we encounter moment by moment, day by day.  We can take concrete steps to decrease the changes in our level of health but we cannot prevent them indefinitely.  Making healthy choices in our diet, decreasing negative stress, developing social resources to broaden our network of friends and loved ones, and getting sleep are all examples of those steps that can be taken.  By achieving a balance in our health we are able to navigate the changes that take place.  That balance of highs and lows allows us to avoid major illness and defend against minor illness more easily. 

At times our own unique physiology, our own bodies, can get in the way of our health.  Our bodies are dynamic and changing from the time of our birth to the time of our death.  At different times we may be more or less able to balance the challenges to our health.  For instance, as an infant our immune systems may be less able to defend against germs and viruses than when we are older and have had more exposure and thus, a stronger immune system.  By keeping our bodies and immune systems healthy we are able to maintain a balance as we age and become exposed to more germs and viruses.  Exercising, getting enough sleep, getting adjusted, taking vitamins, and eating a healthy diet all assist with this.

"If you are healthy, you can interact with germs and not get infections, with allergens and not have allergic reactions, with toxins and not be harmed."  Food allergies are on the rise.  In the US, as many as 15 million people have food allergies.  An estimated 9 million, or 4%, of adults have food allergies and nearly 6 million or 8% of children have food allergies with young children affected the most.  Although childhood allergies to milk, eggs, wheat and soy generally resolve in childhood, they appear to be resolving more slowly than in previous decades, with many children still allergic beyond age 5.  

According to a study released in 2008 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about an 18% increase in food allergy was seen between 1997 and 2007 and the prevalence of peanut allergy among children appears to have tripled between 1997 and 2008.  Why is this?

One theory is that the Western diet has made people more susceptible to developing allergies and other illnesses.

A study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences compared the gut bacteria from 15 children in Florence, Italy, with gut bacteria in 14 children in a rural African village in Burkina Faso. They found that the variety of flora in these two groups was substantially different.

The children in the African village live in a community that produces its own food. The study authors say this is closer to how humans ate 10,000 years ago. Their diet is mostly vegetarian. By contrast, the local diet of European children contains more sugar, animal fat and calorie-dense foods. The study authors posit that these factors result in less biodiversity in the organisms found inside the gut of European children.

The decrease in richness of gut bacteria in Westerners may have something to do with the rise in allergies in industrialized countries, said Dr. Paolo Lionetti of the department of pediatrics at Meyer Children Hospital at the University of Florence. Sanitation measures and vaccines in the West may have controlled infectious disease, but they decreased exposure to a variety of bacteria may have opened the door to these other ailments.

"In a place where you can die [from] infectious diseases, but you don't get allergy, obesity, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune disease, the flora is different," Lionetti said.

By changing the SAD (Standard American Diet) from mainly processed foods and animal products to mainly plant based and raw foods we may be able to reverse the growing trend of food allergies.  Again, it is about balance.   

"Moreover, a healthy person has a reserve of energy that allows for fulfilling engagement with life. The essential qualities of health are resilience and energy."  These last statements reveal the last piece of the puzzle that many Americans take for granted.  We are inundated with advertisements for "energy products."  What we do not realize is that there should be no need for them in the first place!  It is not normal that you are sluggish every afternoon.  That is a sign that something is out of balance with your sleep, diet, or exercise regimen.  Possibly all three could affecting you negatively. 

Eating small portions of vitamin and mineral rich foods at regular intervals, obtaining enough sleep each night, and exercising regularly should provide you a reserve of energy that lasts throughout the day. 

Resilience is the ability to bounce back.  It is our ability to find a sense of balance, a neutral point in our lives when we are pulled in many directions.  Our diets play a large role in resilience but our social networks are just as important.  Having friends and loved ones to reach out to in times of need, knowing that we are not always on our own can also help us to regain our balance.  It strengthens our level of resiliency. 

So how do you define health?  Is it a lifelong balancing act?  Is it more of a foot chase?  If so, are you always trying to catch up or stay ahead?  However you view your health just remember that you always have to work at it.  But you should view that as a way to constantly improve yourself, as repeated opportunities to "get it right."  Your health is never a closed book.  Tomorrow you start a new chapter and you get to choose what takes place.

Be well.