Sleep, Water & Food

Let’s begin by recognising that there are many great practitioners of the industry (s) (MD’s, ND’s, DC’s, PT’s, RD’s, HHP’s, CPT’s, etc.), who constantly push and strive to learn the truth behind achieving optimal health and vitality. (And as a wise man once said, “The truth shall set you free”).

Unfortunately, there is still a considerable fog that shrouds our society and fools us all into confusion about: what’s healthy and what’s not, what saves and what kills and ultimately what’s RIGHT and what’s WRONG. This shroud has spread itself far and deep into our medical establishment via the great and powerful pharmaceutical companies; our agricultural/farming industry via the monstrous pesticide, herbicide, and genetic modification companies; and ultimately our HOMES via TV, magazines, the prior mentioned, and our government.

As health and fitness professionals we get flogged daily on countless issues that seem to have equally powerful contradictory evidence to support both sides. (i.e. medications, fad diets, supplements, exercises, etc.) It truly has become maddening, and often in the name of the all mighty pound ££££!

The objective of this article is to shed some light – a lot of light. For the truth is not so far away if one knows where to look, who to talk to, and what to read. The point is this… drugs are most certainly not the answer. They cure nothing but symptoms while causing a host of other problems.

Sleep

Believe it or not, we are often sick, overweight, diabetic, and suffering from heart disease and cancer because we don’t sleep. The invention of the light bulb brought with it a host of chronic health concerns. In 1910 the average adult slept 9-10 hours per night for over 4,000 hours yearly. Currently we are lucky to get 7 for an average of 2,555 hours yearly. The body is punishing us for this.

Mammals are hard wired to store fat, become insulin resistant, and get high cholesterol during the longer days of summer, and then, to sleep (hibernate) or at least starve for a while, become insulin sensitive again, and drop cholesterol levels when the days are shorter (winter). This cycle was programmed into our physiology over a millennia. Electricity and the light bulb brought endless light, which the body interprets as endless summer. Now, we don’t sleep (hibernate) and we don’t starve (for carbohydrates). We are fat, and getting fatter!

Literally the later you stay up at night the more your brain will force you to seek energy for storage by eating sugar (carbs). Again, your body is thinking “endless summer before the winter.” Sugar is the only path to insulin release. (Please remember that ALL carbs that are not fibre, whether they are complex or simple, break down into sugar at the cellular level.) Insulin’s job is to store excess carbs as fat and CHOLESTEROL. Cholesterol levels increase to lower the freezing temperature of the cell membranes in preparation for the hibernation, that never comes.

Additionally, all of these late nights equate to massive “light toxicity.” This condition can cause excessive paranoid, aggressive, hysterical, and urgent behaviour – or STRESS. In this chronic state, blood sugar is elevated, taxing the insulin response, increasing CORTISOL levels in the blood which has powerful blood sugar mobilising effects. Get ready for this. This means if you are not paying attention to these factors, signs, and symptoms; and you stress yourself out too much – EXERCISE CAN MAKE AND KEEP YOU FAT!!! Rather than acknowledging these facts, the traditional medical establishment has given us Mevacor, Provachol, and Prozak… (£££?)

BOTTOM LINE: SLEEP 8-12 HOURS A NIGHT IN PITCH BLACK DARKNESS. AFTER ALL, IT’S FREE!!!

Your Body’s Many Cries For Water

The average body is 75% water!!! This vital element plays many crucial roles including: digestion, transport of nutrients, elimination of waste, circulation of blood, lubrication of joints and internal organs, and regulation of body temperature to name but a few. Research has shown that the average body NEEDS 1/2 its body weight in ounces of PURE water DAILY as a minimum to maintain adequate hydration. Because this amount may shock some of you, it’s not difficult to comprehend how at least half of the British population has been estimated to operate in a CHRONICALLY DEHYDRATED state for the majority of their lives! Research has also shown that many of the following are SYMPTOMS OF DEHYDRATION, and are treated with a high rate of success by simply drinking more water… …

• HYPERTENSION / HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
• HEART BURN / INDIGESTION
• PEPTIC ULCERS
• ASTHMA
• ALLERGIES
• FREE RADICAL DAMAGE
• DNA TRAUMA
• WEAKENED IMMUNE SYSTEM
• TYPE II DIABETES
• FATIGUE
• LOSS OF MENTAL CLARITY AND FOCUS
• INABILITY TO PERFORM, FUNCTION OR CONCENTRATE

These symptoms are simply the various signs of the body’s water rationing system during periods of dehydration, and thus have often been MISTAKEN FOR DISEASE! Rather than providing the body with water, medical practitioners have traditionally been taught to treat these symptoms of dehydration with drugs.

Chronic pain that cannot be explained as injury or infection should be first interpreted as signals of chronic water shortage in the area where pain is registered – a local thirst. This includes DYSPEPTIC PAIN, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIC PAIN, ANGINAL PAIN, LOWER BACK PAIN, INTERMITTENT CLAUDICATION PAIN (CRAMPS), MIGRAINE and HANGOVER HEADACHES, COLITIS PAIN, etc.

“Dry Mouth” or thirst is NOT a safe judge of hydration levels, it is actually a sign that the body has gone beyond moderate dehydration into a SERIOUS dehydrated state! PURE WATER is the key – it is the only element the body was meant to drink from an evolutionary standpoint. All other beverages (i.e. diet/regular soda, juice, coffee, tea, processed milk, alcohol etc) require much more water than they actually contain to process/detox/pass them out of the system, and thus, act as AGENTS OF DEHYDRATION.

BOTTOM LINE: TRY TO STAY AS HYDRATED AS POSSIBLE. DRINK AT LEAST 5 GLASSES OF PURE-FRESH WATER PER DAY.