Ladies Who Launch: Health in the City

The Ladies Who Launch series gives members of the Ladies Who Launch Incubator a platform for sharing their stories, ideas or points of view.

Andrew Weil has said it. Mariel Hemingway says it in her book, Healthy Living From the Inside Out. Even Julia Child espoused it in her own way. Food is medicine. Food is one thing that has the ability to nourish or kill you--or do both simultaneously. It creates feelings of home or comfort, or of ritual or indulgence...or guilt, of course. While the air we breathe is subject to good or poor quality, contaminants in plastics or other environmental pollutants are extremely hard to control without living in a bubble (which, as clean as it would be, is also a recipe for numerous deficiencies starting with stimulation of any kind), food is this sublime requirement that ultimately can heal, or not. So many of us do what we can to be healthier by buying organic or cutting out sugar (as a start.) But how pro-active are any of us really being about our own health and bodies? It's so easy to take an aspirin, go on recommended medication without thinking or make exceptions to our diets when it's convenient. Jennifer Cassetta makes an interesting argument that traces the beginnings of real healing back to Roman times, and makes a wise suggestion to look inside before seeking synthetic support elsewhere.

Amy Swift, Editor in Chief, www.ladieswholaunch.com

www.healthandthecity.net
Jennifer Cassetta, HHC, AADP
Certified Personal Trainer
Holistic Nutritional Counselor
2nd Degree Black Belt Instructor, World Pro HapKiDo Federation

Food as Medicine: Novel Concept or Ancient Wisdom?

I just returned from the most wonderful conference called Food As Medicine, by the Center for Mind Body Medicine in Baltimore, MD. It was a weeklong, jam-packed, seminar filled with lectures on holistic health by leaders and true pioneers in the medical community.

Before big pharmaceutical companies got very rich and before doctors had bad handwriting, ancient people used their intuition to discover healing remedies concocted from food and plants.

Around 400 BC, Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said, "Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease." This sentiment is exactly what we need to be moving towards to make significant changes in the health of our ever-deteriorating and ever-expanding American people.

1 in every 3 women and about 50% of men in the U.S. will develop cancer in their lifetime. Diabetes and heart disease are also on the rise. In a country with so many technological advancements, how could this be? Could it be that all of these pharmaceuticals that we are popping never really get to the cause of the disease but instead just cover up symptoms of disease? Could it be that practitioners no longer have enough time with each patient to educate him or her on prevention and self-care? Could it be that as patients, we are demanding a quick fix to our problem instead of taking responsibility for our own health and doing what it takes to get well? Could it be all of these things and more? I do think it is time to start asking better questions.

When living in the city, it is easy to slip into an overstressed, on-the-go lifestyle. Sure enough, when the weather gets cold we get our first bout of the sniffles, maybe a cough, and some of us, the flu. The first thing we usually do is blame someone or something for it. We don't look at the months leading up to it and all the ways that we have broken down our immune system by poor food choices, too many late nights, an imbalanced workout routine, and the constant stress of city life.

What we can be doing instead is educating ourselves and those around us of ways to prevent the onset illness. I'm not talking about a flu shot. I'm talking about a shot of wheatgrass or vegetable juice daily to ensure you are getting enough antioxidants. We also need a consistent exercise program to boost the immune system. And how many of us actually get the recommended 8 hours of sleep so our bodies can have enough time to recharge, rest, and heal?

Food As Medicine is not just a new-age concept. It is ancient wisdom that has been forgotten about among the muck of fast food, junk food, and pharmaceutical advertising. I guess it's just not sexy to see television commercials for broccoli and kale. However, because of organizations like the Center for Mind Body Medicine and all other holistic practitioners, there is hope that more people will be able to lead disease-free lives and those who are ill will be able to heal.

For more info on the Center for Mind Body Medicine see www.cmbm.org.

Comments

[kirkland]

Food is medicine, no doubt. I fully believe in 10 years the entire medical model will change and people will not be surgicalized as much and the bodys own very powerful healing system will be utilized to mediate the dysfunction. This is allready happening . ( proLo therapy instead of surgeries for athletic injuries/spine issues , nutriceuticals cleaning plaque out of arteries, etc. ). Light therapies are also a new frontier, the red laser programmable to various frequencies is allready proved to be dynamic with Neuro issues and a whole range of other deficits .
Of course, the financial incentive to validate these new therapies is not there for big pharm and etc. so while many patients experience healing via mind/body modalities and integrative medicine the money to fund studies is scant. If anyone knows anyone with cancer they would be well advised to check out the work with parantal omega 3 and 6's as reported by a Brian Peskin. ( dot-com of the same name) his research and studies on EFAs with patient results are fascinating.

[cktirumalai]

There was a time when cataracts meant blindness. Modern medical advances have changed that, for which one cannot be other than grateful. At the same time, I agree with you that it is not difficult to slip into the attitude that problems can be fixed through medical intervention, even though some are too intractable for that. I have greater trust in the doctors who keep me well through sound advice, which requires foresight and, of course, responsive action from the rest of us.