Interesting questions, and intereting anwers about money and health. Can rich people buy healthiness? Check it out on Personal Health Freedom’s blog.
Spread your arms as wide as you can. Imagine your presence extending from genetics, in your left hand accross your body, to the nutrients that build your cells and tissues, your organs, your bodily systems – to your body in the centre. On the right, join your hands with your communities, your family, your pets, your environment, the organizations you are a part of, your friends, perhaps your church, your employers, your government, and the corporations around you.
Imagining illness:
Imagine the different illnesses, from genetic deformities to cellular tissue diseases like cancer, to diseases of the joints and bones like arthritis, diseases of the heart and circulatory systems, diseases of the brain, imagine illnesses of the spirit like fear and hatred, imagine illnesses of the communities like murder – often a family illness, as well as war, torture, genocide. Imagine each illness as a small, almost insignificant hole in the ground close to the line of your body. In the distance, imagine the most serious illness, large holes and finally the cliff of death. The sun rises every day on hope, and casts shadows of doubt – often setting on death. All of this space contains all of the gradations of illness between minor symptoms and ultimately death. It might look like a landscape on a dead planet or moon.
Your body is in the centre of this field of possible illnesses. When you die, your body dies, if you have managed to reproduce, your genetics do not die. Your family does not die. The communities you are part of do not die. Of course sometimes, a genetic line dies out. Sometimes a family dies, and sometimes larger communities as well. Continue reading
After several years researching and writing about the concepts of health and healthiness, as opposed to illness, I have consolidated many of the concepts from this site and the sister site: PersonalHealthFreedom, into a book that provides a foundation for the concepts of healthicine.
Purchase paper edition on Amazon. Purchase Kindle edition on Amazon.
Healthicine: the Arts and Sciences of Health and Healthicine is the book that lays the foundation for exploration of the concepts of healthicine. It is available on Kindle, as well as in traditional paper format. The Kindle version has colour illustrations – and links to larger versions of the illustrations. The paper format has illustrations in black and white. Click here to view full size colour versions of the book illustrations.
Here is a preview of what you can find in the book, chapter by chapter: Continue reading
Healthicines increase healthiness. Medicines decrease illness. It’s easy to say, but it can be very difficult to understand clearly. Are “alternative medicines” healthicines or medicines? Are vitamins healthicines, or medicines? Are herbal medicines healthicines or medicines. Let’s begin with some simple examples, where the lines are very clear.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. An apple is a healthicine, not a medicine. You can eat as many as you want. Your children can eat them. Apples don’t make you healthy ‘quickly’, health is created slowly, “an apple a day“. Apples don’t fight specific illnesses, they improve general healthiness. If you are sick, an apple won’t make you well and if you eat too many, you will get diarrhea. But if you are sick, an apple a day will still help you be healthy. You don’t need a prescription to buy an apple.
If you have a bug, you might get a medicine to treat your symptoms. Medicines that treat your symptoms don’t make you healthier, they only make you feel better. Or you might get an antibiotic. An antibiotic kills bacteria. It is a medicine, not a healthicine. It works by decreasing the healthiness of many bacteria in your body – it does not discriminate between healthy and unhealthy bacteria and can be dangerous to your healthiness. Antibiotics are powerful, and work quickly, over a few hours or a few days. Antibiotics are designed or prescribed individually, for specific illnesses and are not effective for other illnesses. If you are not sick, antibiotics won’t make you healthier and can be toxic, and dangerous, to yourself and your children. You need a doctor’s prescription to purchase an antibiotic.
The difference between apples and antibiotics is pretty clear. Apples create health, antibiotics fight illness. We can summarize the differences as follows:
When we see it in this table, it seems pretty clear. Medicines are not always bad, healthicines are not always good. Each has a function. Continue reading
I read a beautiful quote on Quora the other day, from a five year old. Her father had asked “How do we show someone we love them?”, and she responded “We play with them.” I love it! We sing, dance, and play. Sometimes we play hard. When we love, we are strengthening our communities.
Communities, in the healthicine hierarchy, cover a wide range, from couples, to families, to partnerships, companies, corporations, churches, and governments. Any group of people, even people and animals living or working together. Communities, healthy communities, can be competitive, cooperative, or even playful.
Let’s look back in time, before there were any communities. Adam lived alone in the garden of Eden. His constraint consisted of one rule from his God. You must not eat from the tree of knowledge. God made no other requests, no other rules. Adam had no needs that were not met by the garden, and thus no need to make requests of God. Was it possible for Adam to love? Was it possible for Adam to sin – alone in the garden? Continue reading
