Health and Vitality Naturals

Who is calling the shots on our health and healthcare globally and up to the local level? There are many players but one crucial player who could make the greatest impact is the policy maker/the politician. There is a general consensus that noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are largely lifestyle-related, with nutrition playing the most significant role. Lifestyle modification revolving around optimum nutrition for optimum health can make a huge difference in combating  NCDs. If policy makers and of cause politicians could acknowledge the need for paradigm shift from emphasis on the current biomedical approaches to combat NCDs to that of alternative approaches (nutrition being the dominant factor), and take this position to the general public, it elevates the prospects of wining the war against NCDs. However, for reasons we all have to figure out, it  is apparent that policy makers and politicians world-over, have not yet stepped up to the plate to make this a reality, as depict...

What takes us to the emergency rooms or clinics, and what do we  want when we  go to an M.D.  or physician ? In all honesty, m ost of   us would say we want the   doctor to give us a name for our disease and a pill to   make it go away. This phenomenon has been  call ed   “ the pill-popping mind-set ” by Mindell and Hopkins, in their book, “Prescription Alternatives”. Contextually, this could fit well with the terms, “the perfect physician mindset” or “the savior mindset”as perceived by healthcare consumers. For most of us, from childhood throughout our lives (through our parents, relatives, teachers, etc.), we have been conditioned to believing in “the perfect physician mindset”, and this has been compounded by financial interest alliances of prescription drug institutions, through  multimillion-dollar advertising   and marketing campaigns on TV and in popular magazines   and newspapers, that everything “wrong” with us is a resul...

That’s a fascinating question, bearing in mind that in one of the last blog post entitled “Nutrition and Health: Dissecting The Complexity - I s nutrition science up to the task? ”, I presented arguments for and against nutrition science being up to the task, with concluding remarks that nutrition science is not up to the task. To answer the current question, we might have to as one or a few more questions: On what basis are the current dietary reference intakes formulated? Is it on evidence-based science/medicine? Are the data generated from clinical trials/practice? Do they represent optimum nutrient intake? Before we attend to these questions, it is worthwhile to note that, h umans, unlike most animals, are unable to synthesize vitamin C endogenously, and therefore  it is an essential dietary component .   Vitamin C is required for the biosynthesis of collagen  (a component of bones, cartilage, blood vessel walls, etc.) , L-carnitine, and certain neurotransmitters; v...

In one of my post entitled “ Nutrition and Health - Dissecting The Complexity ” , I highlighted the need for a paradigm shift in nutritional research for a better understanding of the place of nutrition in health and disease. Currently, world over nutrition policies which include establishing dietary guidelines as aspects of addressing the burden of malnutrition through prevention of  diet-related diseases, are formulated based on evidence based science generated from the biomedical research approaches. The current post therefore explores more on the question “ Is nutrition science up to the task ” ? This will be done by highlighting current views aired by advocates and proponents of various nutrition research approaches. In my previous post I highlighted limitation of the biomedical research approaches to nutritional science research due to the complexity of the nutrition in health and disease relationships. However, Mozaffarian , D  and Forouhi , N (2018) argue that d es...

In my most recent post on nutrition and health, I highlighted the issue of the nature of complexity of nutrition in health and disease, and noted that we have a long way to go in research studies to better understand the relationship between nutrition and health. Although significant progress has been made in nutritional research within the biomedical model of health and disease, I am of the view that this is unlikely to lead us a better understanding of challenges in nutrition, health and disease. The current biomedical approaches have gone as far as employing more complex approaches as systems science (article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5298925/. ) to explore potential connections between nutrition and health. The systems science a pproach, also grounded in the biomedical paradigm, however is likely to be less successful in addressing the current nutritional science problems, as the approaches incorporate some of the scientific research methodologies which are by ...

ARE We GETTING OPTIMUM NUTRIENTS AS THE BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS FOR HEALTH & WELLNESS?         Background The source of much needed nutrients remains a hot topic in all discussions concerning health and nutrition. To better understand issues of adequacy, inadequacy and imbalances of nutrients in human/animal health,   we provide a brief background of nutrition as a crucial component of health protection, health promotion and wellness. In essence, the principles of optimal health and wellness depend on five broad factors, referred to as the five pillars of health, summarized as follows:  i). Avoid situations of serious physical danger  ii). Sleep long enough for your needs iii). Conduct a minimum of exercise per day iv). Do not eat or drink harmful substances v). Choose a sound wholesome diet that you can easily  follow. For this posting, we focus on the last two pillars of health and wellness (i.e., avoid taking in har...

Taking charge of your health requires the ability to overcome the fear of being unable to do so. It does not necessarily require help from medical or health care professionals as most of us are made to believe. What it takes is health-enabling lifestyle, which can be achieved at individual level willpower, intrinsically. If we believe that health is a phenomenon of all living organisms (unicellular, higher organisms - humans, animals), then as humans, we should be able to learn and realize that some animals live very long lifespans, through natural lifestyles in their natural habitats without any input from their own "highly trained health professionals", for example “Dr. Squirrel”.  We can learn from some of the theories behind long lifespans in tortoises and turtles, focusing particularly at the lifestyle theory, at: https://animals.mom.me/turtles-tortoises-live-long-3134.html Happy reading! In Health!

The questions to ask and possible answers are: Are we getting enough nutrients for health maintenance, protection, promotion and wellness during the life-course? The answer is NO.  And how do we know? Extensive literature indicates that there is a strong association between ill-health (especially chronic diseases) and nutrient inadequacies, imbalances or excesses. Are there solutions to the nutrient-health associated relationship? Yes. The most realistic and reliable approach to the nutrient-health puzzle is to supplement good eating habits with nutritional supplements especially micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Food alone is not enough.   How you feel is the best indicator of the need for supplementing your nutrient requirements. Considerations on supplementing our nutritional requirements  can be based on our own informed decisions, recommendations from our health care providers, or decisions from our guardians . T his can come about at any stage through...

So I have heard from many people that nutritional supplements (a component of natural health) work for some people but not for other. These are beliefs we learn through our life experiences and can change as we learn more and new phenomena. Getting down to the basics, nutritional supplements are in essence food (nutrients that might be lacking in our food or at the absorption interface) Therefore nutritional supplements as understood to be food are irreplaceable for life sustenance and continuity. When the saying goes “food is medicine”, including supplements as they are understood to be food, it is just within the philosophical frame work of natural health in which the body is believed to heal itself and food/nutrients as are believed to be the fundamental building blocks of the inert healing power/forces of the body (immunity being part of the healing package). O n the other hand, for most of us, our mindsets are conditioned to blindly believe the hype on universally accepted safet...