What Happened With Your Health?

When something traumatic happens, one of the most pressing questions most people ask is… WHY? It seems to be intergraded into our mindset to search for the CAUSE of the events.

Newscast analysts in murder cases spend hours and hours trying to figure out why the murderer did what he/she did. And when we lose a loved one from disease or an accident, we often look up to the only power that can answer our question and ask:

“WHY did you have to take him/her away from me?”

So it’s no surprise that after watching people’s general health decline drastically over the last 30 years that we also want to ask… WHY?

Type 2 diabetes cases are increasing by a whopping 20% per year and people suffering are getting younger and younger. More people are dying from heart attack and stroke than 100 years ago and that’s despite the fact that everyone and their uncle is on either blood pressure or cholesterol lowering drugs. Obesity is completely out of control and we could go on and on.

So WHY is this happening? Aren’t the advances in the medical system supposed to be making us healthier instead of sicker?

In today’s feature article I’m going to list the five things I believe are the major causes for this development. Then I hope that you’ll contribute what you believe to be the major cause in the comment section below.

Lets begin with the most obvious one:

Overeating

We’re frankly eating too much. The average food portions are bigger than they’ve ever been before. Even the plates we eat off of today are a third bigger than they used to be.

This is especially true for America (where it’s no surprise that obesity more common than other developed countries). When traveling in Europe and Asia I notice how people order much more moderately at restaurants than in the USA.

This is not just nostalgia of the past. Hard core numbers show that the average American consumes almost 1000 more calories per day than they did in the mid 1950s.

Given that obesity is one of the major contributors of most of our modern diseases, it might be a good idea to cut down just a little on our food portions.

But it’s not just the size of the food that’s the problem; even more importantly, it is what is actually ON our plate.

Processed Food

Technological advances have really made it possible to generate an almost unlimited amount of food quickly. Genetically modify vegetables and animals and they’ll grow much faster and bigger in conditions that before were not possible.

Then load the food with hormones and chemicals and the growth will be even quicker and no bacteria will want to come close to those things.

Now cook, freeze and pack the food and add even more chemicals to it so it will last forever.

The result on our plates is food that’s totally robbed of any nutrition and energy while loaded with chemicals and empty calories.

Wow, what a treat!

Would you believe it for a second that we’re immune to the hormones fed to the animals we’re eating? That the chemicals used in processing will not affect us when we eat those? Doesn’t make any sense does it?

One of the most harmful but overused chemical is high fructose corn syrup. It’s in everything now. Not only has it been found by itself to contribute to some major diseases, it’s so cheap that it can be used without considering any moderation.

The consumption of high fructose corn syrup took off in the beginning of the 1980s and has been increasing steadily ever since. Simultaneously obesity and the frequency of type 2 diabetes have increased. There is absolutely a direct connection between the two.

You probably remember as kids to only have one or two sodas per week maximum. Now kids are drinking two to three per day. It’s so cheap and it’s everywhere and it’s loaded with high fructose corn syrup. No wonder almost a third of our children suffer pre-diabetes.

Check out our All Natural Type 2 Diabetes guide for information on how to beat diabetes in 28 days…

So there we have it. We’re eating too much and consuming an overload of empty calories from food and chemicals.

And it’s not like we need those extra calories. We drive more and spend more time sitting in front of the TV and computers than we ever did. So while consuming more we’re burning less.

So that brings us to the next trend of last 30 years…

Lack of Movement

It’s not just lack of exercises to burn calories. By nature we were designed to be constantly on the move. Sitting in front of the computer or TV or in a car for hours and hours without moving much isn’t natural for us.

Our system works as a whole and part of the system is our skeletal muscles’ purpose of helping the heart to pump blood around our system. If we don’t move around, this doesn’t happen like it should and our heart has to work harder. The result is that vital parts of our bodies don’t get enough oxygen.

This not only causes blood pressure to rise, but also leads to oxygen-depriving diseases such as fibromyalgia and migraine. Later on this can cause stroke, heart attack or Alzheimer’s.

To learn about various conditions caused by lack of blood flow check out:

Fibromyalgia information
Migraine and headache information
TMJ information

Now, of course, the major problem with lack of movement is that we don’t process the overload of calories in our system. Studies have shown that by just paying a little more attention to not sitting too much, taking the steps etc, people burn 250 more calories per day. This equals about an hour of walking.

Staying on the move throughout the day also keeps the metabolism going and prevents our blood sugar levels from spiking.

One of the biggest dangers is when people begin to develop health problems such as neck/back pain or arthritis. Since it hurts (especially in the beginning) to move, people shy away from it.

Studies have shown, however, that exercising is one of the best things you can do to improve arthritis. For more info on improving arthritis naturally, click here…

But lack of movement isn’t the only side effect of our technological systems. In fact there is another thing that’s much, much worse. What are we talking about? Of course…
Stress

The average person has never been under as much stress as they are today. The technical world is moving us so fast that our minds and bodies can’t keep up. This has really been a health hazard developing over the last 50 years.

Stress can come in many shapes and forms. We have emotional stress, mental stress, physical stress, sensual stress, etc.

Some of the most dangerous generators of stress we fall victim to is hidden stress from our environment. Studies have shown that people who live in big cities experience an extreme level of stress from the street noise. Even those who lived there for their whole lives and are mentally used to it still fare worse than people living in quieter areas. But their bodies simply don’t ever assimilate and that causes a ton of health problems like high blood pressure.

Then we have emotional stress both from present times as well as our past. This is often caused by a conflict of values between what we want and what other people expect from us. It can be our bosses, spouses, children, parents, friends or the man on the street that open up that internal conflict within us that causes stress.

Mental stress happens when we have to solve a problem and find solutions. This can, for example, happen when we encounter problems in work or while dealing with money. Emotional stress and mental stress are often closely connected.

We often ignore physical challenges as stress. But did you realize that when you get sick, your body is under a lot of stress? Even having a common flu releases a lot of stress hormones. Not to mention painful diseases like arthritis or neck pain. Even health problems we’re not consciously aware of such as high blood sugar levels or high blood pressure cause our body to release stress hormones (which can raise blood pressure). Since stress also makes us more vulnerable for all kinds of diseases, this can be a vicious health circle.

However, all stress is not bad!

Temporarily, focused stress ends up lowering our overall stress levels and can make us healthier.

Exercising moderately is one example of this. While you’re on the tread mill, your stress level goes up. Then as you step down, your stress level drops again and your body is loaded with good feelings from natural hormones.

The same thing happens when you do a cross word puzzle or Sudoku. You’re temporarily putting mental stress on your system that then gets relieved once the puzzle is finished.

Even a good, healthy, outburst fight with your spouse that then ends with making up and making love can be healthy. You both allow yourself release emotional stress, followed by purging physical stress and then it’s over.

We all experience stress from time to time. The key is to relieve the stress and give your system a break. Even a few minutes of a break will do a lot to improve your health.

This is why Christian Goodman’s blood pressure program is so successful. Almost everyone can drop their blood pressure using his focused break exercises.

You can learn more about the blood pressure exercises here…

The last thing I consider as a major contributor to our modern day health crisis is kind of a double-edged sword. On one hand it has improved our lives drastically; on the other hand it may be one of the major causes of death. I’m talking about…