Family Health Watch

URGENT! Who is caring for your family's preventative wellness?  If you think that taking yourself, your spouse, and your kids to the doctor for colds, flu, vaccinations, and physicals is preventative care, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but it isn't!

Let me take you back 100 years...  Picture it. Stillwater, 1912; the days when everyone lived on a farm.  People worked all day, farming, cleaning, cooking, walking & playing outside.  After the work day was through, time at dinner was spent talking with immediate and extended family.  After dinner your mind was left to think, imagine, plan, read, or toil over the trials and tribulations of the day's experiences.  Ah, those were the days!  When there were no GMO (genetically modified) foods.  Minerals in the ground were plentiful, pesticides were far and few between and we actually derived plenty of nutrients from the foods we were eating.  

Flash forward to the present day... We drive and inhale the smog from big industry. We ingest the pesticides and genetically modified, pesticide-sprayed, nutrient-poor foods peddled at the local grocery store; or worse, eat fast food, if you can even call it food.  We live sedentary lifestyles, watch the idiot box, live in a virtual social media world, and rarely talk at the dinner table unless it is a special occassion.  We are texting, typing, watching, sleeping or working in a stationary job without exercise.  So back to the original question. Who is caring for your family's preventative wellness?  If you're living as the typical American family like I was, then the answer most likely is "nobody."

It's time for a change.  "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" were the words our grandmothers chanted.  However it takes 5 apples today to equal the nutrative value of an apple from the 1950's.  Even if we had that apple today, it wouldn't be enough to combat the increased toxins, pollutants, stress, and sedentary lifestyles we face today.  We need to make a change...a plan!

What is a preventative wellness plan? How can I get one and how do I know that it is tailored to my family's needs?  I am glad you asked.  A preventative wellness plan is a plan that takes into consideration the weaknesses in the way you are living your life as well as the genetic weaknesses you face, and fills in the holes and gaps.  It is like wearing the proper winter gear to go snowmobiling or going snowmobiling in your underwear.  Which do you prefer?

Before we begin it is important to understand the two basic principles of health.  1. To feed and nourish the body.  2. To detoxify the body.  What goes in must sustain us and what is left over must come out. You are what you eat and you remain what you don't elimate.

First you will want to take a realistic assesment of each of your current health states.  In other words, how have you been taking care of yourself so far? What is your BMI (body mass index)? Do you have a current condition or disease? How frequently are you moving your bowels daily?

Next it is important to know your family genetics.  You can accomplish this through a detailed family history and/or a genetic test that looks at your genetic variations or mutations that effect the major areas of health.  This allows you to determine where you have areas that need additional support.  Children can't take the test, however by knowing their parents' genetics you can plan to support the needs they most likely inherited. The genetic test I recommend is the GeneSNP. It not only provides you with your genetic results, it creates a custom health action plan that will help you identify the changes needed to promote your health and wellness. 

Finally, You need to look at your current diet and lifestyle factors. These are still very important because they contribute to the prevention or creation of disease and/or aging (oxidative stress).  Things to evaluate include: Stress levels? Eating habits? Smoking? Drinking? Working with chemicals? Exercise? Sleep?

Once you have a good picture of what you and your family are facing from these factors you can put together a preventative wellness plan to ensure that you all grow happy and old together.  

The best way to do this is to find a reliable source for assessing the factors and making a recommendation to offset and or minimize the potential weakness.  The GeneSNP mentioned above is one of the best I've found.  If you can't afford to have testing done I recommend a FREE online test also offered called the Nutri-Physical.   It essentially provides the same results based on probability.  Of the ones I have seen, I've found it to be 85% effective in determining need based on probabilities.

Otherwise, go to your health care provider and let them know that you are interested in creating a preventative wellness program for you and your family and see what they say.  If they don't say "Great!  Let's get right on that,' you might want to look elsewhere for your family's health care!

If you would like a more detailed explanation on how to create and customize your family plan, share your requests below and I will do another blog outlining the science and detailed instructions.

Don't forget, "health begins in the mind and education is the key."  "Having a plan is better than having no plan at all," and "if you don't ask, you won't get!"

Bye bye for now, thank you for reading and take very good care of yourself!