The Pillars of Your Health

There is so-called principle of the four pillars of health. Now let’s move to talk about Health pillars…

Pillar 1: Nutrition.

The wrong diet can promote the development of dysbiosis and overgrowth of candida in the gut and this can paradoxically limit the absorption of both macro and micro-nutrients by the digestive tract mucosa. This can lead further to food intolerancies and chronic inflammation, chronic fatigue and then to multiple other commorbidities including autoimmune disorders and attention deficit. Restoring adequate, healthy nutrition can often be the primary basis for treatment of many diseases, and is also recommended when medication is already needed. The major problem of the US health care currently is the rise of chronic diseases. So called “diseases of civilization” are the result of overweight and obesity, and are associated with multiple metabolic disorders. Each calorie which is beyond our metabolic needs – is not doing us favor but rather – is actually “toxic” to our bodies and contributing to chronic, silent inflammation. Despite of abundance of calories, overeating leads to imbalance of macronutrients (wrong proportion of carbohydrates : fats : proteins) and leads to the shortage of micronutrients (like vitamins, minerals, bioactive phytochemicals etc that are very important for our metabolism). Thus obesity is commonly caused by so- called "micro-malnutrition". Unfortunately, most of us eat Standard Americal Diet (SAD) food that that does not meet the molecular metabolic needs of our own bodies and this leads to micronutrient deficiencies. This, paradoxically, often happens with a predominance of processed foods on our plates. A healthy diet, consistent with the human genetic code - unblocks "positive" genes (including extension of telomeres protecting DNA and preventing aging), strengthens the immune system, restores health, vitality and fertility. The goal of nutritional therapy together with appropriate supplementation is to improve the function of the gastrointestinal tract, the immune system, metabolic control (reactive hypoglycemia, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia), and regulation of hormonal balance. Many of us do not want to change our eating habits, not realizing how important for our health is what we chose to put in the basket in the grocery store and then later what goes on our plates. To be honest, I struggled for a long time personally looking for a relationship between eating and my health and body condition. I also went to the so-called "Daniel Health Retreat" with Dr Ewa Dąbrowska, subjecting myself to a "nutritional experiment". There I discovered how powerful plant-based diet can be, especially in raw form ...and how little is needed to be healthy...

Pillar 2: Physical activity

Systematic exercises lead to the upregulation of many genes related to vitality and health and to maintaining cognitive abilities and brain plasticity. Paradoxically, this effect is most visible especially when we exercise after crossing 40-50 years of age! Scientific research has shown the beneficial effects of systematic and balanced movement exercises in decreasing the inflammation level and thus preventing and delaying the development of many chronic diseases, including cardiovascular, respiratory (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - COPD, bronchial asthma), muscle, joint and bone diseases (degenerative arthritis, osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome), depression and cancer. Physical activity is extremely important for physical and mental condition.

Pillar 3: Sleep and regeneration

A very important element of health is caring for the so-called “sleep hygiene”, its length and conditions in which we sleep. Sleep leads to wellness, maintaining hormonal balance. Studies have shown that chronic sleep deficiency (less than 6 hours) causes a dramatic decrease in cognitive performance and leads to obesity.

Pillar 4: Mental balance, ability to cope with stress

A very important pillar, because chronic stress which is unavoidable in the modern world – is like a poison and can be the cause of many diseases, among others weakening the immune system, exacerbating the symptoms of many autoimmune diseases, e.g. Hashimoto, Graves', diabetes, etc. There are many prescriptions for this. Personally, being a Catholic - I cannot underestimate the role of faith and prayer in protection against stress.