Good Health Depends On Choices
In the 1950’s, cancer struck one in four people; by the 1980’s, it was one in three and at the current rate of change, by the year 2010 it will strike one in two.
With all the hand wringing about the sorry state of health care in Canada, it’s surprising so few take a preventative approach to their own health. Cancer and other chronic degenerative diseases are common today but are actually an uncommon development in the body.
Here are some alarming facts from the World Health Assembly (WHA):
1) Major non communicable diseases are responsible for about 24 millions deaths worldwide each year, with circulatory & heart disease, stroke, and cancer leading the field.
2) In Canada, more than eight in ten will die from a disease, with 25% of young people and over 90% of older people suffering from one or another.
Read that again to absorb it. Most of us walk through life with the rock-solid assumption we are powerless to avoid disease. This is a dangerous myth. Wholesome foods and lifestyle habits can and will build good health, establishing a preventative approach to disease. There is no law that says we must get sick.
There are some plain choices we can make. Individually we should:
1. Insist on foods free from chemicals, biotechnology and irradiation.
2. Eat fresh, local foods, which maintain health preserving nutrients
3. Breathe fresh air and exercise more.
4. Avoid lifestyle factors detrimental to the body.
The obligation of government is making responsible decisions such as:
1. Prioritize environmental issues such as air, water & soil maintenance
2. Encourage local food chain infrastructures
3. Penalize for business practices which assassinate health for profit
4. Enact mandatory health education for children
5. Provide tax breaks for companies making healthy products
According to the WHA, chronic disease is incurable. The medical field can only retard the advancement, treating symptoms and pain. With over 50 chronic degenerative diseases in existence today, we face a problem that has only one solution: correct the cause. In the end, good health lies squarely in individual choice.
