Stay Healthy Naturally

Health is simply a state of balance or homeostasis, when all functions in the body are working cohesively to bring about optimal vitality. Staying healthy therefore involves a holistic approach to supporting all the systems in the body.

The foundation of natural health is based on the understanding that the body is intelligent and there is a vital force directed to work 24/7 to come back into balance. All a person needs to do is support this natural force and the systems, organs and tissues involved.

Probably the first and most important way to stay healthy is to prevent getting sick. Through my observation, in our modern day culture, stress is the number one cause of lowering immune system and a person getting sick. Stress can come in the form of physical, mental/emotional or spiritual. There are also different forms of each of these categories as well. For example, physical stress can be lack of sleep, too much exercise, eating junk food, or an open wound. Emotional stress could come from watching the news and staying in a fear state, depression, “heart break” or any emotion that over powers the natural state of balance. First identify what is the stress, learn how to manage and applying the changes is essential in staying healthy.

1. Some ways to reduce stress
   1. Take time to do nothing, sleep
   2. Meditation
   3. Gentle exercise: yoga, walking, Qi gong
   4. Avoid overeating and eating the wrong foods/drinks.
   5. Change your perspective. Reflection with gratitude. Love and Laugh

As stated above, we have natural mechanisms in our highly sophisticated and intelligent biology to keep us healthy and warding off potential pathogens. This is typically considered the first line of defense of the immune system. It is the innate immune system. The innate immune system is extremely sophisticated and massive. The innate immune system includes your:

• Skin & microbiome
• Mucus membrane & microbiome
• Stomach Acid
• White blood cells (immune cells that are designed to “attack” and clean up unwanted cells)
• Bodily responses: coughing, sneezing, runny nose, tearing, fever, loss appetite

Ways to support your innate immune system include:

1. Listen to your body’s responses such as fever and coughing, and support it. Do not suppress it with drugs. There are herbs which can minimize the discomfort and severity if these symptoms become dangerous, but understand and trust your body is trying to heal.
2. Skin care. Use natural nourishing products free from synthetic fragrances and oils which will further burden your immune system and disrupt your microflora.
3. Maintain healthy mucus membrane through good hydration, hygiene and breathing exercises.
4. Make sure you have adequate nutrients that are essential for the immune system: Magnesium, Zinc, Vitamins D-C-A-E, B’s, essential fatty acids.  
5. Herbal remedies for restoring balance and specific to your particular imbalance. Some ways of using herbal remedies include:
   • Herbal Elixir: ginger, lemon, apple cider vinegar, thyme, garlic, horseradish, (honey)…
   • Herbal Tea:  turkey tail, usnea, chaga, pine needles, juniper, birch leaves, self heal,    peppermint, echinacea, licorice 
   • Herbal Soup: bone broth with ginger, shitake mushroom, garlic, astragalus, turmeric…
   • Herbal Bath: hot epsom salts bath with essential oils (lavender, tea tree, eucalyptus…), oats, chamomile, self heal

Another very important aspect of staying healthy is to reduce your exposure to pathogens*. Some ways to reduce exposure to pathogens include:

• Sanitation, but not sterilization so as to keep your microbiome balanced and healthy.

• Use good quality natural products that feed your skin and microbiota. Products with petroleum based products are void of vitamins and minerals which are in good quality products. They most likely also have synthetic preservatives, additives, fragrances etc, which burden and clog you inside. Avoid synthetic and harmful cleaning products, cosmetics, scents, food, drinks, smoking, etc

• Practice regular hygienic practices: neti pot, oral cleansing, bathing…

* Even though we want to reduce exposure, It’s important to remember that exposure to natural biological microbes in small doses and spread out over some time is fundamental for life. A natural biological bacteria, virus, fungus, yeast etc., does not become a pathogen unless it starts to cause damage to surrounding cells. Inside our bodies there are highly sophisticated mechanisms which, as just one example, manufacture the perfect defense cells. It can only do that if it has the information of what type of defense it needs to manufacture. That’s the immune system. It is an operating system that updates itself constantly and naturally. We are part of the ecosystem of life, our microbes evolve with the outside environment’s microbes. You can not sustain health by living separate from it. Specifically what I mean is that trying to sterilize everything and burdening the body with drugs or injectables will only work against you. There are some exceptions but that topic leads into a more esoteric conversation about death.