If you visit my Web site with any regularity, you know I believe the state of one’s health mirrors that of an artist whose masterpiece of a lifetime never quite gets done. Simply put, your health, like that masterpiece, is a work in progress that always requires your attention if you want to stay on top of things. The improvements and refinements you can make are many and the rewards — a longer healthier life, free from pain, disease, anxiety and toxic drugs — are just as obvious and profound. All it takes to start is making a commitment to change.

Why I’m starting this week on a philosophical note has to do with a New York Times column I read yesterday that takes the opposite viewpoint. One of their medical writers argues the state of one’s health may be set in stone and cannot change, no matter what we do.

Sounds a lot like the argument people use to justify a lifetime of miserable health — the my genes made me do it defense — just because their parents and relatives may have suffered from obesity and cancer that shortened their lives.

The problem, according to the article, is blamed on a popular commercial culture in America that promotes an inexhaustible capacity for self-rejuvenation and self-repair. One scientist with the National Institutes of Health argues our culture promotes a belief that working toward a healthier lifestyle will completely erase all the damage of the past. Not necessarily so.

For the sake of brevity, here’s a couple of points to consider when people try to discourage you from making important health changes that can have a significant impact on your life and your family:

  • Our genes are merely dumb storage facilities that do very little to influence our health. It’s the expression of our genes that’s the most important influence and that expression is altered by our emotional influences. The future quality of your life and health isn’t dictated, for example, by your late father’s three-pack-a-day smoking habit or his morbid obesity.
  • You give up a great deal of your personal power and responsibility when you conclude, for example, your future health cannot change no matter what steps you take to improve it. Fact is, one can activate many hidden healing systems with powerful synergistic combination of beliefs and natural healthy choices.

That begins with retooling your diet based on your body’s unique metabolic type. An important factor in helping you achieve good health and maintain a healthy weight is to follow a diet based on eating the right foods for your specific genetic biochemistry.

And, you must address the emotional issues that contributed to making those poor health choices too, which is why learning an energy psychology tool like the Emotional Freedom Technique is so vital and helpful in overcoming the emotional barriers that can stand in your way.

New York Times, April 17, 2005Registration Required

Wilmington Star News, April 17, 2005