Optimal Health is freedom from all signs and symptoms of illness or dysfunction. Assuming you were born with good health and have had excellent childhood nurturing and continuing optimal health habits, you are likely to have optimal health well into your 90’s!
Of course, you have to have adequate food, clothes and shelter and be free of anxiety and depression. For most individuals, this ultimately means being self-actualized, which means being at your very best every day.
Maslow said, “I think of the self-actualizing man not as an ordinary man with something added, but rather as the ordinary man with nothing taken away.”
Of course, just looking at health habits, at least 97% of people cannot be self-actualized because they lack one to 5 ESSENTIAL health habits!
What is optimal health? The lack of symptoms and dysfunction requires optimal nutrition, exercise and sleep, and relative freedom from the pollution of air and water.
Optimal nutrition requires 80% vegetables and fruit and 20% protein.
Eighty percent of food sold in the United States is junk, loaded with sugar and artificial additives. In general, potatoes, sugar and white rice should be avoided. That includes all those packaged dry products on the center aisles at grocery stores and at all fast-food restaurants.
Optimal nutrition means eating total calories that provide you a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 18 to 24.
But optimal nutrition is not enough to achieve optimal health. To achieve optimal health you must also:
- Exercise a minimum of 30 minutes five days a week
- Not smoke
- Drink minimal alcohol
- Not need any drugs
- Sleep 7 or 8 hours every night
Beyond the care of your body, optimal health ultimately means that you are happy, that you have a network of friends (true for most people), and are organized and responsible. These are conscientious individuals who live longer and healthier than those who are not conscientious.
For most individuals, it means having a beloved mate and a family, with a home, and a meaningful lifework. The purpose in life is to help other people, and almost all jobs provide something of value to others.
It also often means having a significant spiritual life. Spiritual health is a feeling of hope, peace, tranquility, and oneness with God and the universe. Meditation, prayer and a wide variety of religious practices keep one feeling positive about life itself. If you do not have such, practice this: Autogenic training Basic Schultz.
There is a lot that is under your control when it comes to achieving optimal health. However, not all is.
The biggest problem in achieving optimal health is avoiding poison!
City water in most cities is polluted with fluoride, one of the worst poisons in the world. If we do not get rid of fluoridation within the next 20 years, there will be no more children. Male sterility today is 20 million sperm count, already down from 150 million 50 years ago!
What is optimal health? Freedom from poison in food, water and air. Air quality in most cities is far from optimal. In addition, the electromagnetic background is toxic as is the background of radioactivity. Since 1940 background radioactivity has increased many times.
How can you tell if you have optimal health?
Optimally healthy individuals have longer telomeres, the tips of DNA, higher natural levels of DHEA, the natural anti-stress hormone, lower cortisone and adrenalin, normal blood pressure and blood sugar. They work no more than 40 hours a week and take time to enjoy life. They have higher levels of D 3, vitamin C, and antioxidants. They have essentially no symptoms, no anxiety, no depression.
Unfortunately, not more than 3% of Americans enjoy this state of optimal health.
Are you ready to change your habits to those necessary for optimal health?
So, if you ARE ONE OF THE 97% LACKING ESSENTIAL HABITS, now is the time to come to the rescue of your life and health. Start with your nutrition by avoiding wheat, white rice, potatoes, fast-food restaurants, and everything in the grocery store except vegetables, fruits, dairy, and non-processed meat.
If you do not already eat at least 5 servings of veggies and fruits daily, get ORAC-RICH GREENS and Moringa Olifera Super Mix and add those in a morning slush. Beyond that eat only items in the last paragraph.
What is optimal health? After the diet changes, consider bouncing for health.
Then commit to sleeping 7 or 8 hours every night!
Finally, commit to doing Autogenic Training twice every day for 3 months. After 3 months, you will be joining the growing number of happy, longer-living, optimally healthy Americans. Become Self-Actualized.
C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D. is the father of holistic medicine. He recommends autogenic focus (the basis of the Biogenics System) as a means of building your spiritual health as part of your pursuit of optimal health. Register to download your FREE autogenic focus MP3 now.