Did you know the Bible addresses how to take care of your body? The message of health is interwoven throughout the scriptures. While we know, for example, that there are dietary issues that lead to certain diseases, there are also spiritual/emotional aspects of health as well.
For example, according to the book of Proverbs, there is a connection between stress and diseases of the bones. In numerous places throughout Proverbs, it talks about how a peaceful heart is health to the body, but issues that cause chronic stress causes the bones to rot. What are some of those issues? How about envy (Proverbs 14:30), a disgraceful wife (Proverbs 12:4), and Proverbs 17:22 says that a broken spirit (i.e. discouragement and depression) dries up the bones.
Modern medical science has proven that high levels of an amino acid called, homocysteine, in the bloodstream leads to degenerative changes throughout the body, causing osteoporosis (bone loss), heart disease, and cancer. High homocysteine levels are caused, in part, by chronic stress. In fact, a study at Ohio State University reported in Life Science 1999 revealed that “…stress induced rapid and significant elevations in plasma [blood] homocysteine…”
Scripture also addresses the importance of what kind of food we choose to eat. Proverbs 23:1-3 says, “When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is set before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive.”
During the time and place that the book of Proverbs was written, it was only the rulers and dignitaries that ate rich foods like pastries, wine and beer, lots of animal fat, etc. The commoners didn’t have access to rich foods, but subsisted off of vegetables, grains, fruit, and wild game. Consequently, it was only the wealthy that got diseases that became known as “the diseases of kings and queens.” What were those disease? Arthritis, cancer, obesity, heart disease, and other degenerative maladies that were largely foreign to the commoners.
In modern America, EVERYONE eats calorie-rich, nutrient-depleted foods, and as a consequence, we are an entire nation of people who suffer from the diseases of kings and queens.
For example, according to the book of Proverbs, there is a connection between stress and diseases of the bones. In numerous places throughout Proverbs, it talks about how a peaceful heart is health to the body, but issues that cause chronic stress causes the bones to rot. What are some of those issues? How about envy (Proverbs 14:30), a disgraceful wife (Proverbs 12:4), and Proverbs 17:22 says that a broken spirit (i.e. discouragement and depression) dries up the bones.
Modern medical science has proven that high levels of an amino acid called, homocysteine, in the bloodstream leads to degenerative changes throughout the body, causing osteoporosis (bone loss), heart disease, and cancer. High homocysteine levels are caused, in part, by chronic stress. In fact, a study at Ohio State University reported in Life Science 1999 revealed that “…stress induced rapid and significant elevations in plasma [blood] homocysteine…”
Scripture also addresses the importance of what kind of food we choose to eat. Proverbs 23:1-3 says, “When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is set before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive.”
During the time and place that the book of Proverbs was written, it was only the rulers and dignitaries that ate rich foods like pastries, wine and beer, lots of animal fat, etc. The commoners didn’t have access to rich foods, but subsisted off of vegetables, grains, fruit, and wild game. Consequently, it was only the wealthy that got diseases that became known as “the diseases of kings and queens.” What were those disease? Arthritis, cancer, obesity, heart disease, and other degenerative maladies that were largely foreign to the commoners.
In modern America, EVERYONE eats calorie-rich, nutrient-depleted foods, and as a consequence, we are an entire nation of people who suffer from the diseases of kings and queens.
Here's what NOT to do.
Former Surgeon General, C. Evert Koop, conducted a study in 1989 which determined that 7 out of 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. were diet-related diseases of lifestyle that were largely preventable. It’s tragic that among all the industrialized nations of the world, America currently ranks 37th in the quality of the health of our citizens. We are indeed the land of the free, but the home of the diseased.
Compounding this dilemma is the fact that we have a medical system that is hell-bent on ramming more medications down our throats and subjecting us to more expensive and risky surgeries while largely ignoring the issues of lifestyle and nutrition. America spends more than 1.6 TRILLION dollars on health care, yet we are still one of the sickest nations on the planet! It is obvious that drugs don’t make us healthy, but they just mask the symptoms of the disorder, which is not improving our health.
Worse yet is the fact that many of these drugs we have been exposed to have dangerous and often lethal side effects that are often not known to the general public until hundreds and sometimes thousands of people have died, and after the drug manufacturers have profited in the BILLIONS of dollars. (Remember the Vioxx and the Premarin debacles? The same thing is now happening with the bone loss drug, Fosomax.)
You might find it interesting to know that a paper written by several medical doctors and PhDs, called, Death by Medicine, revealed that the leading cause of death in the U.S. is no longer heart disease or cancer, although that’s still what you hear about. The leading cause of death in America is something called, “Iatrogenic Disease,” or illness that was induced by the doctor, taking more than 750,000 lives per year by conservative estimates. From lethal side effects from drugs, to botched surgeries, and misdiagnoses, doctors are 9,000 times more likely to kill someone than gun owners according to the research. Yet somehow we have been duped into believing that medical doctors are the saviors of humanity.
Let me let you in on a little secret. Medical doctors are indoctrinated by a system that is geared toward huge profits. Drugs and surgeries are BIG business, but they do nothing to help the body heal itself in most cases. Sure, there is merit to cutting out a cancerous tumor, and there is value in some drugs like blood pressure medications, but why is it that doctors will typically spend less than ten minutes with their patients, and then usually all they do is prescribe a medication to deal with symptoms?! Why don’t they spend enough time with the patient to find out WHY they have high blood pressure or whatever other malady? Why don’t they spend time with patients helping them to understand how to eat healthy diets, how to achieve healthy weight, how to deal with their stress levels, and the efficacy and safety of using high-quality nutritional formulas instead of drugs?
Well, it’s because, 1) medical doctors know next to nothing about diet and human nutrition because they don’t get that training in medical school, and 2) medical doctors are driven by an insurance system that rewards them for the number of patients they see, NOT the results of their care. So your family doctor, regardless of how nice he or she seems, is motivated by the profit to be gained from the number of patients that come in and out the door in the course of a day, so great effort is made to make your visit as short as possible. That way they make more money, and it doesn’t make one iota of difference if you get better or not, or whether you drop dead from the side effects of the drugs. They get paid anyway.
If this weren’t enough, the practice by insurance companies of paying for these obscenely expensive medications, surgeries, hospital stays, and doctors visits, and NOT paying for preventive and alternative healthcare like therapeutic nutrition, lifestyle education, chiropractic care, naturopathy, etc, is bankrupting the health care industry and the insurance industry. For the first time in our nation’s history, it costs more per month for the average American to pay for their health care than it does one’s mortgage! The health care industry in the United States is in a crisis and WILL significantly affect you and your family very soon – both financially and in your ability to access appropriate health care services. A recent Harvard study finds medical bills to be the leading cause of bankruptcy and that more than 75% were insured at the start of the bankrupting illness. Families in bankruptcy suffered many privations -- 30 % had a utility cut off and 61 % went without needed medical care.
Today, the mortgage payment on a 30 year, 6% fixed rate P & I median mortgage of $130,000 is approximately $780 per month, or about $9,360 per year. Today, the average annual cost for a health insurance policy with a modest deductable for a typical family ‘group policy’ including basic, catastrophic, and maternity is now over $12,000 per year! According to Helen Darling of the National Business Group on Health, this excludes co-pays and deductibles. That is about 28% MORE than the average mortgage payment! Even more disturbing is the fact that you have earned neither equity nor future coverage if you were a prudent consumer by investing in your health and experienced low health expenses that year. Even worse, the insurance cost will likely go up at 1% to 2% per year – FASTER than the cost of living!
One sound alternative approach is to take control of your health by caring for yourself. Did you know that in the United States more than 175 people EVERY HOUR are diagnosed with cancer and another 65 die from it?! More than 60 percent of those deaths could have been prevented if Americans adopted healthier lifestyles: eating healthier food, exercising more, and stopping smoking (American Cancer Society March 31, 2005). Likewise, “poor diet and physical inactivity may soon overtake tobacco” on the list of the leading causes of death. ( JAMA 2004 Mar 10;291(10):1238-45)
These findings, along with escalating health care costs and aging population, argue persuasively regarding the need to establish a more preventive orientation in the US health care and public health systems. Achieving wellness is an approach to health care that puts you back in control, making you responsible for your health. But therein lies the rub. Most Americans, it seems, don't want to take that responsibility, because that responsibility will involve sacrafices and a bit of work, such as exercising on a regular basis, thinking about what we stuff into our faces, and limiting the amounts of food we eat.
Again, most of the chronic health care conditions that bankrupt and plague Americans are lifestyle diseases caused by an individual’s diet and daily habits. So it behooves us to begin paying attention to how we treat our temples, because our medical system has proven that they are taking as many lives as they are saving; perhaps more. God cares about how you treat your body, because He wants us to live long, fruitful lives upon the earth. So it is imperative that we learn what foods to eat and which ones to stay away from (this is not rocket science). It’s vital that we keep our bodies active and exercised, that we steer clear of chronic stress if possible, and supplement the diet when necessary with high-quality nutritional formulas. And most of all, that we seek God with all our hearts, feed on His Word, and spend ourselves on behalf of the needy, which scripture says will bring life and healing to the body (Proverbs 3:7-8, 4:20-22, Isaiah 58:6-11).
___________________
For more on how modern medicine has betrayed the trust of Americans, see my book, Licensed to Kill, in the side column of this blog. There are a number of other reliable and well-researched resources on not only the sinister nature of drug companies, the FDA, and the medical system, but also on how to keep one’s self healthy through diet and lifestyle changes. Here’s two that I recommend: Under the Influence of Modern Medicine, by Dr. Terry A. Rondenberg, and Body By God, by Dr. Ben Lerner.
Former Surgeon General, C. Evert Koop, conducted a study in 1989 which determined that 7 out of 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. were diet-related diseases of lifestyle that were largely preventable. It’s tragic that among all the industrialized nations of the world, America currently ranks 37th in the quality of the health of our citizens. We are indeed the land of the free, but the home of the diseased.
Compounding this dilemma is the fact that we have a medical system that is hell-bent on ramming more medications down our throats and subjecting us to more expensive and risky surgeries while largely ignoring the issues of lifestyle and nutrition. America spends more than 1.6 TRILLION dollars on health care, yet we are still one of the sickest nations on the planet! It is obvious that drugs don’t make us healthy, but they just mask the symptoms of the disorder, which is not improving our health.
Worse yet is the fact that many of these drugs we have been exposed to have dangerous and often lethal side effects that are often not known to the general public until hundreds and sometimes thousands of people have died, and after the drug manufacturers have profited in the BILLIONS of dollars. (Remember the Vioxx and the Premarin debacles? The same thing is now happening with the bone loss drug, Fosomax.)
You might find it interesting to know that a paper written by several medical doctors and PhDs, called, Death by Medicine, revealed that the leading cause of death in the U.S. is no longer heart disease or cancer, although that’s still what you hear about. The leading cause of death in America is something called, “Iatrogenic Disease,” or illness that was induced by the doctor, taking more than 750,000 lives per year by conservative estimates. From lethal side effects from drugs, to botched surgeries, and misdiagnoses, doctors are 9,000 times more likely to kill someone than gun owners according to the research. Yet somehow we have been duped into believing that medical doctors are the saviors of humanity.
Let me let you in on a little secret. Medical doctors are indoctrinated by a system that is geared toward huge profits. Drugs and surgeries are BIG business, but they do nothing to help the body heal itself in most cases. Sure, there is merit to cutting out a cancerous tumor, and there is value in some drugs like blood pressure medications, but why is it that doctors will typically spend less than ten minutes with their patients, and then usually all they do is prescribe a medication to deal with symptoms?! Why don’t they spend enough time with the patient to find out WHY they have high blood pressure or whatever other malady? Why don’t they spend time with patients helping them to understand how to eat healthy diets, how to achieve healthy weight, how to deal with their stress levels, and the efficacy and safety of using high-quality nutritional formulas instead of drugs?
Well, it’s because, 1) medical doctors know next to nothing about diet and human nutrition because they don’t get that training in medical school, and 2) medical doctors are driven by an insurance system that rewards them for the number of patients they see, NOT the results of their care. So your family doctor, regardless of how nice he or she seems, is motivated by the profit to be gained from the number of patients that come in and out the door in the course of a day, so great effort is made to make your visit as short as possible. That way they make more money, and it doesn’t make one iota of difference if you get better or not, or whether you drop dead from the side effects of the drugs. They get paid anyway.
If this weren’t enough, the practice by insurance companies of paying for these obscenely expensive medications, surgeries, hospital stays, and doctors visits, and NOT paying for preventive and alternative healthcare like therapeutic nutrition, lifestyle education, chiropractic care, naturopathy, etc, is bankrupting the health care industry and the insurance industry. For the first time in our nation’s history, it costs more per month for the average American to pay for their health care than it does one’s mortgage! The health care industry in the United States is in a crisis and WILL significantly affect you and your family very soon – both financially and in your ability to access appropriate health care services. A recent Harvard study finds medical bills to be the leading cause of bankruptcy and that more than 75% were insured at the start of the bankrupting illness. Families in bankruptcy suffered many privations -- 30 % had a utility cut off and 61 % went without needed medical care.
Today, the mortgage payment on a 30 year, 6% fixed rate P & I median mortgage of $130,000 is approximately $780 per month, or about $9,360 per year. Today, the average annual cost for a health insurance policy with a modest deductable for a typical family ‘group policy’ including basic, catastrophic, and maternity is now over $12,000 per year! According to Helen Darling of the National Business Group on Health, this excludes co-pays and deductibles. That is about 28% MORE than the average mortgage payment! Even more disturbing is the fact that you have earned neither equity nor future coverage if you were a prudent consumer by investing in your health and experienced low health expenses that year. Even worse, the insurance cost will likely go up at 1% to 2% per year – FASTER than the cost of living!
One sound alternative approach is to take control of your health by caring for yourself. Did you know that in the United States more than 175 people EVERY HOUR are diagnosed with cancer and another 65 die from it?! More than 60 percent of those deaths could have been prevented if Americans adopted healthier lifestyles: eating healthier food, exercising more, and stopping smoking (American Cancer Society March 31, 2005). Likewise, “poor diet and physical inactivity may soon overtake tobacco” on the list of the leading causes of death. ( JAMA 2004 Mar 10;291(10):1238-45)
These findings, along with escalating health care costs and aging population, argue persuasively regarding the need to establish a more preventive orientation in the US health care and public health systems. Achieving wellness is an approach to health care that puts you back in control, making you responsible for your health. But therein lies the rub. Most Americans, it seems, don't want to take that responsibility, because that responsibility will involve sacrafices and a bit of work, such as exercising on a regular basis, thinking about what we stuff into our faces, and limiting the amounts of food we eat.
Again, most of the chronic health care conditions that bankrupt and plague Americans are lifestyle diseases caused by an individual’s diet and daily habits. So it behooves us to begin paying attention to how we treat our temples, because our medical system has proven that they are taking as many lives as they are saving; perhaps more. God cares about how you treat your body, because He wants us to live long, fruitful lives upon the earth. So it is imperative that we learn what foods to eat and which ones to stay away from (this is not rocket science). It’s vital that we keep our bodies active and exercised, that we steer clear of chronic stress if possible, and supplement the diet when necessary with high-quality nutritional formulas. And most of all, that we seek God with all our hearts, feed on His Word, and spend ourselves on behalf of the needy, which scripture says will bring life and healing to the body (Proverbs 3:7-8, 4:20-22, Isaiah 58:6-11).
___________________
For more on how modern medicine has betrayed the trust of Americans, see my book, Licensed to Kill, in the side column of this blog. There are a number of other reliable and well-researched resources on not only the sinister nature of drug companies, the FDA, and the medical system, but also on how to keep one’s self healthy through diet and lifestyle changes. Here’s two that I recommend: Under the Influence of Modern Medicine, by Dr. Terry A. Rondenberg, and Body By God, by Dr. Ben Lerner.
