Are supplements right for you?

With the amount of knowledge that we now have about the human body I am flawed by the fact that when you go to most medical doctors they do not ask if you are doing the fundamental ingredients for health, but instead subscribe medications or suggest synthetic supplements.

Here are the 8 Fundamental Ingredients of Health

1. Diet – Real Food
2. Movement – Everyday
3. Quality Sleep –
4. Connection – community
5. Sunshine – circadian health, light, fire.
6. Grounding – bare feet on the earth
7. Nature – flowers, trees, forests, waterways, beaches
8. Clean Energised Water

The knowledge of the human body is extensive and we are learning all the time about the innate intelligence that exists, but what is fundamental to the workings of the human body is hindered by modern living.  Yet you do not hear your doctor ask you about these important aspects to health.

A Typical Day May Look Like This

Wake, get dressed and put rubber soled shoes on with synthetic clothes, eat a breakfast of cereal and modified milk, leave your airconditioned home to get in your air-conditioned car to go to your airconditioned place of work.  Lunch may be ultra processed take away, with a slump in the afternoon with an ultra-processed snack.  Go home tired, get takeaway watch TV till late into the night or be on your smart device, fall into bed to start the next day again.  If you go to the gym, you are still under lights, on rubber mats with white lights above. 

If you now look at the basic ingredients written above many of them have been missed and if you do this 5 days a week and then maybe on weekends change it up a little, your daily dose of health is being sadly neglected.  Yet most of these fundamentals are free and most people neglect them not realising that these are non-negotiables if you want energy and health.

If we look at the human body as something that has evolved over time living in certain conditions that enabled it to survive through famine, disasters, different altitudes, latitudes and longitudes, seasons, we see that if we do not follow the laws of nature and dismiss certain fundamentals then the body begins to break down, biochemically, physiologically, mentally, mechanically and neurologically.  Chronic disease is at an all-time high amongst all age groups.  The World Health Organisation has predicted by 2048 that 88 to 90% of all people who die on planet earth will die from a chronic disease which include heart disease, cancer, diabetes, metabolic disease, mental health and the like.  Australia already is at 90% we are way ahead of the WHO prediction of 2048.  These are all preventable diseases, but the fundamentals are the defining key.

In the last two decades it has become glaringly obvious the importance of how we live is just as important as what we eat.

How to Live A Healthy Life

I talk extensively about eating and the importance of real food, based on where you live and seasonality.  I also talk about how food can be plentiful and food can be scarce as well as how food changes our neurotransmitters and enables the survival of humans by either moving to hunt or staying to eat plant foods.  I have a 400 hour course in the essentials of nutrition that teaches this in detail, I am not short of information when it comes to food.  But if I were to some it up in two words, the species, location specific diet would be mostly seasonal locavore for all fresh foods. 

There are other aspects of our life and the natural rhythm of the day, night and seasons that must also be taken into account.

I look at this in an Anthropological way in that how did our ancestors live for 1000’s of generation without chronic disease.

At some point when I say this I have someone pipe up to say that we didn’t live as long back then, but that has been debunked.  The hardest age to get to was 5, once you reached the age of 5 then the ability to live into the 90’s became greater.  Infant mortality was high and so if we look at the average age of births there is a skewed result.  The body, if given the right ingredients can live healthy to 100 and beyond. 

Throughout the history of man there has been an ebb and flow to the food supply.  As Hunter Gatherers food was usually plentiful in the summer with lots of plants like fruit (carbohydrates) whereas, as the winter came on, the plants became scarce and animals (fat and protein) became the main fare.  Of course, this is a generalisation as there were many factors that changed this such as what altitude, latitude and longitude the human lived at would dictate the foods that were available in the area throughout the seasons.  Closer to the equator there were more plants, the further away from the equator and/or the higher in altitude the less plants.   

The human body evolved to live with these extremes by being able to use carbohydrates, fats and proteins as sources of energy and building blocks.  If one of the macro nutrients were missing the body changed the fuel it used.  If it was carbohydrates then the main energy was glucose to fuel the mitochondria to make energy.  If fats and protein were all that was available then the body would use ketones as its main source of fuel or convert the protein to glucose through gluconeogenesis and use that as a fuel source.  The brain also was fed by glucose and ketones depending on what was being eaten.

It’s interesting to note that when your brain is fuelled by ketones you are more adventurous and curious, this was important as animals moved and migrated and we had to have energy, adventure and curiosity to survive.  Whereas when the brain is fuelled by glucose we are more subdued, calm and happy to just sit.  This was also advantageous to our survival as plants don’t move and we would stay around a tree until all the produce was eaten. 

Why Are Humans Living Less Healthy Lives?

Due to the changing seasons, migrations and food availability there was a constant changing and adaptation to these different fuels.  This is how it was.  But with the modern supermarket we can eat carbohydrates all day, every day, all year our whole life without having to adapt and change our energy source.  Stage right anthropology.  Our body needs the ebb and flow of macro nutrients as a source of information about the environment, about seasons, about sunlight availability.  All these match the body to receive the right signals for health, longevity and perpetuation of the human species.  Without it we would not have survived to now. 

Yes we can live on carbohydrates and ultra processed foods, but are we really living when the WHO predicts by 2048 between 88% and 90% of the world population will die from a chronic disease?  This means that if we continue to treat chronic disease like heart disease, cancer, diabetes and mental health disorders with a medication as opposed to a more vitalistic approach then we live with the condition for the rest of our lives with pain, reduced function, energy and living, and that to me is no way to live.

Anthropology also shows an outdoor life punctuated by the sun rising and the sun setting with different light frequencies communicating with the cells of the body throughout the day. 

Nature also was a part of our anthropological times; plants and the ground contribute significantly to the body’s requirements for minerals and ions.  For instance, we know plants give us oxygen, but if you sit under or brush by a giant tree fern magnesium is given off, all plants circulate certain minerals and release them to the soil or air.  Yellow flowers are sulphur circulators, red flowers iron and purple flowers copper.  As you walk through a forest, sporebiotics surround you which then help the keystone microbes in your microbiome and when you walk bare footed on the natural ground, ions pass through the soles of your feet to fuel the electron transport chain to transform food into energy as well as fuel the communication of all your cells.  A dip in the ocean or a mountain stream or creek is like an almighty energy blast with ions coming into the body from every direction.

Why Does the Ancestral Diet Work?

Are you prepared to wait for more science, or can you take the leap now and make changes in your lifestyle that emulate in this modern world living a more hunter gatherer lifestyle?  It doesn’t mean you have to live in the woods and catch and gather your food you just have to emulate the principles.

Once you have taken that leap and have found a balance in energy then it is about seeing the sun rise and sun set, getting out into the sun even if under the shade of a tree in the middle of the day, go barefoot on natural ground surfaces, take a hike in the forest, woods, or rain forest, swim in a creek or ocean, create good sleep patterns and reduce screen time 2 hours before bed time.

Considering the anthropological principle most people lived in locations of constant environmental changes, their skin colour changed, their light exposure changed, and their wake and sleep cycle changed.  There may be genetic factors involved and with the constant migration of modern humanity to climates unlike the climates of origins this may be something that Dr Iain Campbell from Edinburgh University will scientifically show that for some people more outside time and nature time maybe the one catalyst that shifts their mental and physical health in the autumn and winter.  I look forward to following his work.

 There are many scientists and doctors now discovering that we cannot fix the mind and body with a lifelong prescription of medication.  All we do is mask the symptom and never get to the route cause.  Most of the things I’ve talked about don’t cost any more money, they are far cheaper than a lifetime prescription of medication with dubious side effects.  There are times for medication, but diet and lifestyle must become the overarching treatment for mental and physical health issues.

Cyndi O’Meara