Q: Are you mastering health and vitality or simply subscribing to the latest health trend?
“You mean to say people pay to have someone put a hose in their bottom
and wash out their intestines and they like – just lie there and watch
everything that comes out of their bum? No way!!”
Yes “colonics” were the topic of our car conversation the other day. Allow me to back track… my big two boys were discussing how one of their teachers was the ultimate “chewing gum detector” and he could apparently tell when any student was chewing gum even from a significant distance. This teacher was known to enter a classroom and bellow, “You, you and you, lose the gum now!” When I asked what happens then, the boys replied, “Well a couple of them stand up, walk to the bin and throw out their gum but the kids who think they’re incredibly cool just swallow it, in a kind of silent resistance.”
We went on to talk about what happens when you swallow gum and how the form of ‘plaster’ typically gets caught in the bowel and how people report when they have colonics decades later that multiple pieces of chewing gum or bubba bubba tumble their way out of the bowel. The boys were shocked by my explanation about colonics and asked if I’d ever had one. “To date no I haven’t but at some point if I researched it and explored the benefits and thought it had merit then maybe I would.”
“What! No way!!”
They all shouted and then silence filled the car as they all mentally visualised the process involved. The think tank was interrupted when my nine year old then asked, “Mum why don’t people just use their vacuum cleaner at home instead to do the job?”
We all laughed as we conjured up images of DIY colonics but in retrospect I like his thinking. Not the vacuum cleaner part but his curiosity about why people subscribe to protocols, different health regimes, recommendations or trends. You see whatever the habit, therapy or schedule we commit too whether it’s colonics, vitamins, the paleo diet, fasting, HCG diet drops, chiropractic adjustments, botox, antibiotics, cross fit or marathons whatever goal, desire or interest we have, I believe we need to question our motive and intention.
Why Is Attaining True Health – So Hard?
The rules for healthy eating aren’t a closely guarded secret nor are they rocket science. Likewise we all know if we want to shed some kilo’s we need to clean up our diet, put the fork down, back away from the fridge and exercise more. If we want to gain muscle we need to do exercise that causes muscle fibres to grow and if we want to feel energetic and look vibrant then we need to clean up our lifestyle.
So if we know all of these things, why don’t we just do it?
Why don’t we commit to these rituals?
If we know these strategies then why are so many of us sick?
Why is infertility rising, cancer, obesity, diabetes and countless other health challenges??
Because the road to better has countless distractions and appealing ‘exit’ strategies. Habits hardwired from childhood, cultural beliefs, people we associate with and let’s not forget marketing messages aimed at persuading us to make poor food choices, take drugs for quick relief or pills for a fast result.
We get a little confused.
Collectively as a society we spend so much time trying to prevent disease and focus on early detection programs that have forgotten the our real goal should be to learn how to continually preserve and strengthen our health. We are so focused on early detection protocols that we falsely assume that these tests offer us health security.
For example we do breast checks and get mammograms for early detection of lumps, we check prostates, blood pressure and glucose levels all for peace of mind so that we can assume that we have a clean bill of health. That is until, our next test results are due. We live in hope that the tests will reveal everything is fine and typically many people do nothing to improve lifestyle habits. This is an incredibly reactive, fear driven model or way of managing health, here contemporary medicine is centred on countering disease-causing agents, working retrospectively.
If there’s a problem then we rely on an appropriate treatment being applied and hopefully we avoid more sickness and ultimately death. The reality is however that collectively we have more chronic disease than ever before and take more drugs and undergo more procedures then previous generations and the preventive health model doesn’t and isn’t working.
What if ….
What if however our collective focus was directed towards exploring ways to consistently and proactively invest in our health?
Here I’d love you to consider my first question – are you mastering your health and vitality or are you perhaps subscribing to the latest health trend without fully examining if it’s moving you towards greater health and wellbeing?
What if every time we wanted to jump onto the latest health trend we took a moment to consider:
- “Will this decision or therapy, strengthen or compromise my long-term health?”
- “Who do I know who has committed to this health regime for a long period of time and how has it served them? Am I inspired by their current health status?”
- “How will this new habit, therapy or product help me be more resilient and better adapt to my lifestyle stressors?”
Allow me to elaborate.
I say “long-term” because short term effects are exactly that….”short term”. One can take a course of antibiotics and the first few times it may seem that they work quickly and effectively and yet most of us are aware that antibiotics obliterate not only harmful bugs in our digestive track but also the rich, diverse strains of essential bacteria we need for our immune system to thrive. Brash decisions to take antibiotics for minor ailments can severely compromise our health.
If you are not sure of a product or therapy is definitely safe then don’t commit to it yet and do your research.
Also weigh up the credibility, intent and awareness of the individual or group recommending any drug, brand or therapy. For example you may not necessarily want to take dietary advice from a personal trainer who looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger but who is covered in ache, takes steroids and guzzles Red Bull’s and processed protein shakes all day. Just saying… he’s not likely to be your best source of advice for wholesome eating.
Nor is it wise to jump straight into five “Cross-fit” classes a week because your new boyfriend is passionate about them if you have no postural strength and have no idea how to safely lift weights let alone safely lift weights up and over your head.
And back to our colonic discussion….. I elaborated with my boys saying, “I think colonics are best used in conjunction with other steps to cleaning up bowel health. For example some people, unlike you lads who at this point in your life like to burp and fart on command, some people, unintentionally burp and fart all day long because their digestion is very poor. These people wouldn’t want to assume that colonics will be a sustainable solution to this problem if they continue to eat lots of white flour and other bum glue. Obviously they need to change their diet and start eating cleaner, healthier foods. It also makes no sense to do colonics as a form of detox if you also continue to drink lots of alcohol, smoke cigarettes or eat processed foods.”
It’s important to examine why we are making a particular health choice. Are we being bossed into it? Or are we minimising ourselves, elevating someone else and latching on to the their latest health kick without understanding the rationale or philosophy, only to then wonder why we can’t sustain the new ritual???
I talked further about this in the next post Understanding the Intent behind Wellness – Salutogenesis.
For more holistic health principles please see Well Adjusted Babies and Ticklish.
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Yours in health…
Jennifer Barham-Floreani
Bach. Chiropractic, Bach. App Clinical Science
Registered internationally, no longer practicing as a chiropractor in Australia.
