Who Should I Listen To For Health Advice?

Doesn’t it strike you that there is just SO much information out there that it’s almost impossible to know what the truth is? Do this…do that…eat something else…avoid thingummies…it’s just endless! I remember seeing an article once telling me how bad apples were for me! Someone, somewhere always has an argument for and against pretty much everything.

Then there are those who put information out there to sway people towards their own agenda (or sales line). Of course big pharma companies are going to propagate information tagging anti-vaxxers as quacks and hippies! Naturally mobile phone manufacturers are going to pooh-pooh research about electromagnetism and radiation and come up with their own conclusive facts! What else would the meat industry do but tell you you need protein and will become anaemic if you don't eat meat?

The fact is, unless you are prepared to do your own experiments and very thorough research, there is no way to know exactly what information is true and should be followed.

I used to be like pretty much everyone I know: I would get colds two or three times a year, the odd bug or virus, food poisoning occasionally. I would take Panadol for headaches and Berocca for hangovers and go to the doctor whenever I felt a bit poorly. I thought it was normal. Then I learned some very important things about health and I haven’t been sick for a long, LONG time, even though I regularly spend the day in air conditioned offices in high-rise CBD with sick people coughing all around (and sometimes on) me!

My partner was the same: office bound, sick several times a year. “It’s going around” was always the catch cry. He was also on ‘lifetime’ heart medication and a regular visitor to medical specialists. Since we met and he changed his health practices he has not needed the medication, has not been sick once, and was told by the specialist that he could no longer find anything wrong ‘but he should stay on the medication anyway’. Nope.

Some time ago I became fed up with the system of over-information and decided to trust my own body, mind and instincts about what I should or shouldn’t do. I decided to live a natural life, as closely as I could. That’s not to say that I don’t read a lot of information and research stuff endlessly and listen to speakers and avidly goggle at the latest miracle products and inventions….but if I need to make a choice about my health I now apply these:

You feel the truth

I heard a speaker say once “If you hear something it will either feel true or it won’t. You will know. If it’s not true for you, it just won’t feel right.”

I realised this was absolutely correct, those feelings are quite clear once you learn to listen to them. When I hear or read something I just know if the information resonates with my inner self. I’ve learned to trust that feeling of right. I’ve learned to heed the inner wisdom we all have.

Who is getting results?

Isn’t it amazing what a bunch of armchair experts we all are?! Overweight people telling you how to eat. Unfit people telling you how to get toned. People who get sick all the time telling you how to stay healthy and what pills work. Spectators telling you how to play the sport. Unsuccessful people telling you how to get rich. People who have never traded telling you how dangerous the stock market is.

Anyone in the world can claim to have the answer to what you want to know, but quite simply I want to see who is getting the results. Those are the people I’ll listen to. And not results with side effects. Just results….ones that feel right to me. Seeing the pattern?

What is the most natural way I can go

And this is the most important one….

Our lives and lifestyle have become increasingly unnatural over the decades, until they are almost unrecognisable. Nearly everything we do is against the way nature intended, and against the way that nature operates. We are not meant to live in boxes all day long, indoors in stale air, eating food wrapped in plastic and out of boxes, heating it with radiation, immersing our bodies in chlorinated water, drinking fluoridated water, staying up all night, sleeping after the sun comes up, going at a hundred miles an hour, and slathering our homes and our bodies with toxic chemicals.

I often go into “cave-woman” mode and ask myself “What is the most natural way that I can do this? What decision keeps me closest to natural living?” Do I want to eat ready-made convenience food? Is it found in nature? Nope, so I won’t eat it. A million companies tell me to put a conglomeration of chemicals on my skin to protect me from the sun. I choose to go in the sun with some organic coconut oil on my skin. If I feel a bit off I don’t take medicine - I do what animals do – I sleep, drink water and stay off food so my body can focus on healing instead of digestion. I let my immune system deal with the germs on the floor, not anti-bacterials. I don’t avoid eating potatoes because they are bad carbs….they come from nature, I’ll eat them all day long if I like.

Health is really very simple: breathe deeply in clean air, drink lots of clean water (a litre per 22kgs of body weight), get some sun each day, move your body often, eat natural, unprocessed food, sleep a lot, allow proper and lengthy time for healing and resting, deal with your emotions, honour and be true to yourself. Simple.