With the swine flu hitting fever pitch and the flu season into the Champions League stages it seems appropriate that now is the time to be proactive in your health.
As pioneering health and medicinal Doctor Antoine Bechamp once wrote, it is the ‘terrain’ rather than the ‘germ’ that makes us ill.
Meaning, we are surrounded by germs, moulds, bugs and nasty creepy crawlies that make us ill. If the inner terrain i.e. our body is sick then these critters will be sure to take hold and wreak havoc. If we are healthy they don’t.
Think of it like this – if you were to leave food in the fridge, turn it off and leave it for weeks then I am sure you will all know what you would be faced with if you dared to open the door!
Your food was ok going in but it somehow degenerated into a rotten mess without any help from the outside. The inner environment essentially changed the way it looked, tasted and appeared!
This philosophy allows us to take control of our health rather than be a victim of circumstances.
So take back your health with these really simple health boosters. Enough to give you a wee booster coming into the silly season
Keep hydrated with a minimum of 3-4 litres of quality mineral water every day, male and female. Pee yourself healthy! Keeping hydrated keeps us in full working order. We are 70-80 per cent water. Bear this in mind before you care about how many vegetables you are getting in at meal time or how much protein sits on your plate.
It is like driving around the car with little or no oil. Would you let that run dry? Yet it seems strange to me that we would happily let ourselves run dry. Do you care more about your car?
Choose Alkaline Foods over acidic foods. We are alkaline by design meaning that the body will do anything to retain the neutral status of our tissues and the fluid that we are made up of. So give it what it needs!
Too much acid foods and drinks in the form of animal and dairy proteins, sugar, coffee, tea and fizzy drinks will drain the life and the health reserves from you.
You are robbing Peter to pay Paul. To buffer this excess acidity that you are consuming the body will draw on its alkaline mineral reserves to neutralise this. Ladies and Gentlemen I introduce you to fatigue, brittle bones, dry skin and disease!
To help the body give it the alkaline environment that it needs. Commit yourself to salads at lunch and dinner with your meal.
The more life in your food, the more life in you.
Take Vitamin D. Vitamin D is a powerhouse vitamin that helps with everything going on in the body from uptake of calcium to driving its way into the cells of your body allowing them to unlock the key to your true health potential. Over 63 studies have shown its ability to prevent all forms of cancer too.
The two viable options are artificial UVB and supplements. If visiting an indoor tanning salon, be sure to ask for the booth with the highest UVB to UVA ratio since only UVB produces vitamin D. UVA is useful in producing a browner tan.
Dietary sources of vitamin D are generally insufficient to produce optimal levels of this vitamin. Milk contains only 400 I.U. of vitamin D3 and at a basic levels 800 to 1000 I.U. per day are probably required. You may need more depending on a blood test.
However, using a supplement is the best option for those with lack of daily sun particularly from October to March.
Taking regular daily exercise as a means of getting oxygen into the body and the heart rate up is a sure fire way to give your body a real kick start in the health game.
Disease thrives in low oxygen acidic environments. Otto Warburg, discoverer of cancer, said this in the 1930s. So get outside! Take a walk in the parks, cycle, swim or play sport. Do something most days of the week.
The point is exercise is different to training. Do something in these winter months. Training requires intense effort and a goal. Exercise should not be intimidating. There is a difference.
You will fight and be flu-free if your mind-set is set to become as healthy as possible over the months rather than ‘fall victim’. Stack the above suggestions and you will fast be on your way to a nice-cosy winter devoid of Kleenex and cough bottle.
John Lark is a personal trainer in dublin.
