Foundations of Health

Optimal health and vitality begins with these six foundational principles:

Thinking. Healthy thoughts create healthy bodies.
Breathing. Breathing rythmns are essential for energy, focus and vitality.
Movement. Move regularly to pump your biological oscillators for optimal blood flow and detoxification.
Hydration. Water is literally involved in every single bio-chemical process in the body.
Nutrition. Strive to eat the highest quality food that is right for your biochemical individuality and metabolism.
Sleep. Align your circadian rythmns and get to bed before 10.30 pm every night to promote optimal healing.

Thinking

As above so below

The mind is a very powerful thing. It is the universal basis of our experience, the creator of happiness and the creator of suffering.

If one were to truly comprehend the nature of one's mind to shape their reality, they would not allow any thoughts or emotions that they didn't want into their life, into their mind. Some of us make the mistake of believing that the nature of mind is exclusive to human beings. It is in fact the nature of everything. It can never be said too often that to realize the nature of mind is to realize the nature of all things.

Throughout human history mystics have adorned their realizations with different names, faces and interpretations. Naturally these differing qualities were informed by the cultural environment and associated language. But despite their differences, what they are all fundamentally trying to express is an experience of the essential and universal nature of the mind. Christians and Jews call it “God”; Sufi mystics would call it “the Hidden Essence”; Buddhists refer to it as “Buddha Nature” and Hindus title it as "Brahma" or "the Self”. At the heart of all religious frameworks is a conviction that there is a fundamental truth, and that this life is an opportunity to evolve and realize it. An understanding pervades, that the individual mind is a reflection inside the universal mind and that we are all intrinsically connected.

Furthermore, the body and the mind are not separate entities, operating independently from one another, but rather more like complimentary opposites. The body and the mind mirror each other in the most remarkable fashion, whereby insight can be gained about the mind by looking into the body and vice versa. Some physical ailments, an old injury in your leg for instance, will not release its pain by physical means alone. It is only when the underpinning mental/emotional states and associations to the trauma surrounding that injury are also processed and removed that the physical side of the pain will follow suit. I have personal experience healing injuries understanding this kind of inter-relationship.

There exists a field of science that has evolved over the last 40 years to study the relationship between the mind and the body. Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) takes an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating psychology, neuroscience, immunology, physiology, genetics, pharmacology, molecular biology, behavioral medicine, infectious diseases and endocrinology together. PNI investigates how the immune system, the endocrine system, and the central and peripheral nervous systems are all involved in the mind-body connection, a pivotal step in understanding psycho-somatic (mind-body) disease. PNI shows how neurotransmitters, hormones, and neuropeptides have been found to regulate immune cells, and these in turn are capable of communicating with nervous tissue. One of the primary factors driving this synergy is the activity of the mind and emotional state of the individual. This might sound rather complex on the surface but the implications are clear, there is feedback of interaction between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems of the human body.

There is now sufficient data to conclude that changes in the immune system created by psychological stressors can lead to actual health changes. This mind-body connection is implicated by increased risk factors across diverse conditions and diseases. Changes related to infectious disease and wound healing rates have provided the strongest evidence to date. In one epidemiological study, all-cause mortality increased in the month following a severe stressor, which came in the form of the death of a spouse. Potential health consequences are broad, but are not exclusively negative. The same mechanism, which will suppress your immune system and make you more vulnerable to infection, will also increase the activity in response to positive mental-emotional states such as joy and gratitude.

All of this held in consideration should help you to understand why it is important to be mindful of one's thoughts.

Make sure that what you bring into your mind is what you want to bring into your life.

Breathing

Breathing mechanics are fundamental to the creation and management of cellular energy

Breathing offers oxygen which is actually a primary nutrient to the body, the brain can only survive for a matter of minutes wihtout this critical nutrient, while you can survive for days without water and weeks without food. The way in which you breath determines how much oxygen your lungs can take in and how effectively your cells can utilise that oxygen. An optimal or sub-optimal state of cellular respiration is reflected in the way you breathe.

Breathing through the mouth, heavy, fast, in a jerky fashion and/or noisily are all indicators that your cellular respiration is struggling. You may be breathing a lot of oxygen, your blood may be saturated with oxygen, but your cells are not able to use as much O2 as they need. If your cells, not just your blood were well oxygenated, your breathing would become and remain nasal, slow, light, smooth and silent. You would feel relaxed, energetic and clear-minded as a result. When you breathe too fast you inhale more O2 than your body can possibly use, which is useless, and in fact taxing to the system. Its a form of hyperventilation that continually wastes precious energy. We only need a little more than a few breaths per minute to recieve all the oxygen our bodies need. The flip side of the coin: when you breathe too much - too fast, too heavy - you continuously exhale more CO2 than your body should. The problem is that without enough CO2 your cells cannot utilise the oxygen. CO2 is essential to making O2 available to your cells. In short, even when there is sufficient O2 surrounding your cells, if there is not enough CO2 around, your cells can't use that oxygen. What is the culprit? Exhaling too much. Why do you exhale too much? Because you inhale too much, and each superfluous inhale is systematically followed by a superfluous exhale.

If your respiratory rate is between 18 and 20 breaths a minute, you will only be utilizing 50% of the oxygen on average, in contrast to a breathing rate of 6-8 breaths a minute which yeilds 85% utilization! The oxygen that we inhale has a positive (Para-magnetic) charge, whereas the water in our bodies has a negative (Di-magnetic) charge. Between the two opposing magnetic forces, working potential is created in the form of cellular energy. Oxygen in fact has the highest paramagnetic charge of all the elements found in nature.

Your breathing rythmns and posture are intimately tied to your mental/emotional state. There is a corresponding breathing and postural pattern to each mental/emotional state. States characterised by fear or anxiety for example, will engender fast but shallow breathing which will drive the sympathetic nervous system (fight/flight response) and lead to increased acidity in the body. Correct breathing will also help to alkalinize the blood and to mediate the level of acidity in the body. If you already have an acidic ph because of poor diet and lifestyle factors and also don't breath effectively, your body will be unable to mediate the acidity created from metabolism, and cause fatigue and a breakdown of biochemistry and physiological function over time.

Your nose is effectively a filter for your airways. It is much easier to assimilate pressurised, moistened, filtered air than it is to expose your lungs to the atmospheric conditions, which is what you are doing when you breath through your mouth. Nitric oxide production is also increased up to 600% when we breath through our noses which is involved in exercise performance and metabolism.

Movement

The most important factor for survival after air, water, sleep and food is movement.

The following points explain the importance of exercise for better health and living a pain free life.

Exercise expands the vasular system in the muscle tissue and prevents hypertension.
It opens the capillaries in the muscle tissue and by lowering the resistance to blood flow in the arterial system, regulates blood pressure.
Exercise builds muscle mass and prevents the breakdown of muscle tissue for fuel.
Exercise stimulates the activity of fat-burning enzymes and promotes metabolic flexibility.
Exercise helps the muscles hold more water in reserve and prevent increased concentration of the blood that would otherwise damage the lining of the vessel walls.
Exercise lowers blood sugar in diabetics and decreases their need for insulin or tablet medications.
Exercise compels the liver to manufacture energy from circulating fat in the blood or stores in the body.
Exercise causes an increase in the mobility of the joints. It causes the creation of an intermittent vacuum inside the joint cavities. The force of the vacuum helps to pull water into the cavity, whereby the water brings dissolved solids and nutrients to the cells inside the cartilage, aiding with lubrication and smoother movement of the joint.
Leg muscles act as secondary hearts. By their contractions and relaxations during the time that we are upright, the leg muscles overcome the force of gravity. They pump back into the venous system, the blood that was sent to the legs through the arterial system.
Muscle contractions also pump the lymphatic fluid around the body helping to deliver nutrients and remove toxins from the cells.
Exercise strengthens the bones of the body and helps prevent osteoporosis.
Exercise increases the production of all vital hormones enhancing libido and heightening sexual performance.
Exercise will enhance the activity of the adrenaline-operated sympathetic nervous system. Adrenaline will aslo reduce the over secretion of histamine and, as a result prevent asthma attacks and allergic reactions - providing the body is well hydrated.
Exercise will increase the production of endorphins and enkephalins, the natural opiates and pain-killers of the body.

REMEMBER THESE KEY PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESS IN YOUR EXERCISES:

There is no good or bad exercise. Rather it is the right exercise for the right person, at the right time and performed the right way. The best kind of exercise is the one that you are willing to do first and foremost.

Remember that exercise is a stress and every session has a cost. As much as there is a positive response to the right amount of stress, it's important to consider balancing your training with the right amount of quality recovery time to ensure the effects are positive. Consider the Anabolic/Catabolic balance for optimal performance and sustained energy levels. Think about your balance of Work out and Work in practices.

Fitness is made up of many factors. The fitness to run a marathon is very different from that required to sprint 100m, throw a discuss or compete as a bodybuilder. The type of training that you should do depends on your particular goals.

Like the saying goes if you fail to plan you are planning to fail. Get clear about your goals and set objectives for your training.

Remember that movement heals

Hydration

Water is life

Some physiological textbooks state that the human body processes about 10 billion biochemical reactions per second and every single one of them is water dependant. Water plays critical roles in hydration, energy production and cleansing the body of toxins. Water is the largest component of our bodies and is the chief solvent in nature, meaning it dissolves things into itself and disperses them. Water itself regulates all functions of the body including the activity of the solutes it carries.

Water has an almost infinite capacity to hold information and is critically important in the production of energy in the body. It is responsible for the manufacture of hydroelectricity, primarily for the functions of the brain. The hydroelectric form of energy is much more suited to the delicate metabolism of the brain as this form of energy is 'clean' - it has almost no residue or waste products.

It is uncanny how water is used to make electricity inside the cells to energize the intricate functions that keep the cells alive and productive. Certain proteins have an affinity for certain minerals available in the blood circulation and the solution surounding the cells. Some of these proteins collect sodium and potassium, some magnesuim and some calcium. These minerals, when attached to their specific protein, get spun by the rush of water and begin to shift with the fast rotation of the protein. this process manufactures electricity that gets stored in the membrane stockpiles known as ATP (adenosine triphosphate) or GTP (guanosine triphosphate). The appropriate minerals are also relocated to balance the osmotic ratio between the outside and inside of the cells.

The human body and also the planet we inhabit is approximately 73% water. Connective tissue is about 95% water, the brian is 85% water. Water literally governs every aspect of life on this planet and life within our bodies. Do you see the macrocosmic and microcosmic relationship here?

Optimal hydation is calculated by either, ounces of water for every pound of body weight or multiplying your body weight in kilograms by .033. The resulting number would be the amount of litres of water for optimal hydration.

Here are some reasons to make sure you are adequately hydrated every day

Without water nothing lives.
Comparitive shortage of water first suppreses then eventually kills certain aspects of the body.
Water is the primary and cleanest source of energy in the body, compared to sugar and fat.
Generates electrical and magnetic energy inside each and every cell of the body, providing the neccesary energy to live.
Water is the bonding adhesive in the architectural design of the cell structure.
Prevents DNA damage and makes its repair mehanisms more efficient.
Greatly increases the efficiency of the immune system.
Water is the main solvent of all foods, vitamins and minerals. Water increases the bodies rate of absorbtion of essential nutrients.
Water is used to transport all substances in the body. Both nutrients into cells and toxins away from cells and out of the body.
Increases the ability of red blood cells to collect oxygen in the lungs and remove waste gases for disposal.
Clears toxic waste from different parts of the body and takes them to the liver and kidneys for disposal.
Directly needed for the manufacture of all hormones and neurotransmitters.
Restores natural sleep rythmns.
Reduces stress, anxiety and depression.

Not to mention the gigantic laundry list of disease symptoms that result from de-hydration. At 1% dehydration people can start to experience psychological symptoms. As we age we become less and less sensitive to the bodies cries for thirst, often confusing them for hunger or other maladies. Over time chronic dehydration sets in, creating a myriad of symptomatic expressions of the bodies desperate need to compromise one system after another to get the brain the water it needs to survive.

As Dr Wakaowski says " Natures solution to pollution is dilution".

Nutrition

You are what you eat

Your metabolism is a complex suite of chemical reactions within your digestion and elimination systems, but it also occurs on a cellular level. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories; Catabolism (yang) breaks down organic matter into its subsequent parts, and Anabolism (yin) uses energy to construct and maintain components of cells out of those building blocks such as proteins and fats. Your metabolism converts the raw materials of food into energy but it also requires a great deal of energy to continue to fuel those metabolic fires, in fact it can take approximately 50% of the total calories in the food we consume just to digest, assimilate and eliminate it from the body. Your metabolic rate is a measure of the speed of digestion which influences how much food you will require daily, and how easily assimilated it will be by your body. You are not only what you eat but what you can assimilate. Determining the right eating plan for you, not what’s right for somone else is the best long term strategy. Instead of getting caught up in the hampster wheel of restrictive diets and reflexive binge eating, develop an actual relationship with your body and the food you choose to consume. The simplest truth in the world of nutrition is that if people could simply develop a healthy relationship with their body, they would have access to powerful innate biological intelligence inherent in their cells.

One of the most effective remedies to so many of our modern ailments, is simply to eat according to our nature, or according to your "Metabolic Type", as nutrition expert William Wolcott puts it. Metabolic Typing is a term used to describe a diet that is tailored to an individuals unique metabolism. As a result this concept asserts that foods which are appropriate for one person could be inappropriate for a second and potentially detrimental for a third. In 1956 the biochemist named Roger Williams contributed to this conversation when he published a book called, "Biochemical Individuality"which compliments Wolcott's work. In this seminal book he establishes the basic assertion that we all have a unique metabolic blueprint which is ultimately why no diet framework will ever be able to work for all people. Even within a family unit there can be trememdous variation is the size, location and function of all internal organs. The ability of say, one brothers capacity to process alcohol or caffeine compared to another, can vary by orders of magnitude.

The C.H.E.K approach towards diet and nutrition combines all of these concepts and more into what is called "Primal Pattern" eating. By becoming aware of the body’s internal communication and allowing it to guide you from meal to meal, you won't need to follow diets or prescriptions, rather you honor your body’s requirements as they change. It might seem too simple at first glance but it is highly effective because it is tailored to your specific body and individuality. Self awareness combined with flexibility and food variety are the essential basis of Primal Pattern eating. Once you understand how internal stressors (such as mental or emotional stress) and external stressors (such as weather or exercise) influence your bodys needs for macro-nutrients, you will be able to understand what your body needs and how to meet those needs in a dynamic way. The basic ratio of macronutrients we need to eat is based primarily on our genetic heritage and the epigenetic exposure of our ancestors. For example, the Inuit live where the ground freezes over in the winter and very little plant-life grows for most of the year. As a result, an Inuit diet is about 90% animal foods and only about 10% plant foods. That’s definitely not a diet that a nutritionist would recommend, yet the Inuit that eat according to their traditional diets have remained very healthy and relatively disease free to this day. The inverse expression can be found in peoples that live closer to the equator or in warmer climates such as central Australia. The Aborigines in inland australia eat about 90% plant foods and only about 10% animal foods.

Sleep

Are your rythmns in line with natures

Circadian rythmns are a vitaly important part of health and wellbeing. Every cell in the body is tied to the innate biological clock of circadian rythmns. As the sun rises and stimulates your skin and especially your eyes, your hormonal system naturally releases cortisol which is responsable for activating and stimulating the body and mind into wakefullness. The sooner you can get yourself outside and into the full-spectrum of sunlight, the sooner your body will naturally trigger the release of daytime hormones and the sooner that part of the circadian rythmn will run its course and be balanced with the night time hormones such as melatonin. Sunlight on our skin and especially our eyes will also help to create more serotonin throughout the day, which will eventually be converted into melatonin at night, so a healthy amount of sun exposure in the day actually results in better sleep. As the sun sets in the evening the body naturally reduces production of cortisol and begins producing melatonin and other growth and repair hormones needed for quality sleep.

Unfortunaltely modern society that has saturated our evenings with all manner of artificial lighting which can have the capacity to suppress your natural release of melatonin, compromising your sleep and mechanisms for repairing the body. In particular it is the wavelengths from about 400nm to 550nm (nanometers) which corresponds to the green and blue part of the visible light spectrum, will stimulate the release of cortisol and disrupt natural sleep rythmns. Incandescent bulbs are a good way of mediating this problem or utilizing a pair of blue-light blocking glasses, which will allow you to still be able to see your environment at night and get work done without the compromise on sleep quality. Installing apps like F.lux on your computer or Twilight on your mobile phone can help with blue light exposure by filtering out the most problematic wavelengths for better sleep.

Getting to bed on time is critical if you want the intrinsic healing capacity of the body to be functioning effectively. When the sun is setting the body starts to increase production of growth and repair hormones. From 10pm to 2am your body is using available energy and resources to focus on repairing the physiology, (physical body) whereas the time between 2am and 6am is devoted to the immune system and what is called psychogenic (mental) repair mechanisms. Part of this psychogenic repair involves a system in the brain called the glymphatic system, which brings nutrients to the brain and nervous system and helps to clear away toxicity and metabolic waste. During the psychogenic portion of our repair cycle, the neurons in the brain actually shrink to a third of their original size and cerebral spinal fluid is pumped into the spaces between them, cleaning out the intercellular space and washing away metabolic wastes. The brain is a very energy consumptive organ and if the waste products from cellular metabolism are not effectively cleaned out regularly through good sleep rythmns, the brain will become increasingly toxic and inflamed as a result, causing things like brain fog, headaches and eventually manifesting as neurological and psychological disorders. The consistent stress resulting from disrupted sleep rythmns produces huge amounts of cortisol, which if left unchecked can also cause things like adrenal fatigue which can present itself in a variety of ways such as headaches, viral infections, bacterial and fungal infections and chronic fatigue.

Tips for creating quality sleep rythmns

Get to bed by 10:30 at the latest.
Minimise exposure to bright lighting, especially blue light at night at least 2 hours before bed.
Switch to low wattage or incandescent light bulbs, use candles or get a pair of blue-light blocking glasses.
Instaling apps like F.lux on your computer or Twilight on your mobile phone can help with blue light exposure.
Make sure that your bedroom is as dark as possible overnight.
Turn of your Wi-Fi router and minimise exposure to non native EMF radiation. Unplug all electrical appliances in your bedroom.
Avoid stimulents such as caffeine, sugar and nicotine, especially after midday.
Avoid alcohol close to bedtime as it will disrupt sleep rythmns, preventing you from accessing deep sleep and cause the body to overheat.
Make sure you are well hydrated. Dehydration is a major stress and will produce stimulating stress hormones.
Be mindful about the times that you exercise. Exercising after dinner can disrupt sleep rythmns, especially if the exercise is intense.
Eating the right macro-nutrient ratio and also eating at consistent times will radically improve your sleep rythmns and quality of sleep.

Remember that a good nights sleep starts first thing in the morning.