What Disease?

I will proclaim that there is no such thing as disease from this day forward. That is not to say that there aren’t disorders of function(disfunction) within the human experience. Indeed there is, and we have all experienced disorders to one degree or another.

In other words, I am going to do my best to remove the term disease from my linguistic arsenal because I believe it to be problematic. Problematic in that it allows for a continued building up of ideas and language that takes us further away from the truth of what disease truly is. An advanced state of aging. A problem resulting from our body lacking the vital energies needed to repair or replace the components that we are wearing out. To say it another way, we are using up our body’s resources faster than we can renew them.

And so in some sense, the word disease becomes an expensive paywall that prevents us from understanding what is really going on. And this disease is simply the first paywall or locked door that keeps us from really understanding what is really going on. Once you are convinced that you have a disease and you have gone through that door, it is further separated out into many other doorways and dim passages by which the initial problem becomes even more confused, obscured, blurred, and specialized into other, even scarier sounding disorders and diseases that become even more difficult to understand. This then ultimately leads us down the road to needing a doctor to guide us as blind people through the perilous straights of murky medical terminology. By the time the common man gets to this point they don’t know what to do. And in many cases, their doctor’s primary care doctors know little more. From this point, specialists who hold the keys of knowledge hidden behind the doors of specialties and specific diagnoses aren’t really able to help us better understand what is going on simply because they lack the time or skills needed to easily teach us in plain language what is really going on within our body. And thus we simply trust them in their decision-making processes that landed us in their care in the first place. And once most people get to this point there is little they can do other than say okay, submitting ourselves to a course of treatment that isn’t necessarily going to get us back to a state of homeostasis. To a place of normalcy where our body can once again be in its default state of organic and biological flow where everything is working with ease.

And this then leads us back to life…

There is only life and life exists regardless of our consciousness of it. We get to participate in it for a period of time. A span. A spectrum of existence that begins with what we humans call birth, and that existence has a temporal ending that we call death. Metaphorically speaking, we are simply an act if you will. A scene in a movie or play that makes up the whole of our individual lives. Our act or scene is a story that has many stages in between its temporal beginning and end. One story; yet two natures. One that is physical and the other that is spiritual. One is the story of our physical body and the other is that which we call our consciousness. Yet, both are a part of the same individual story that makes up each individual human life. And it is all an animated existence powered by electrical energy.

Our physical body is an organic, carbon-based life form that has been drawn up, gathered together, animated, and electrified as a utilitarian, beneficial, and necessary part of life here on Earth. We are here for a reason. In some sense acting as a counterbalance to another factor that exists within the realm of life on Earth.

So where does disease fit into all of this talk of man’s nature? What if I told you that disease is simply a metaphor for aging that has been used as a marketing tool in some sense? Well, that’s exactly what it is. The marketing of an idea that at the very least implies that there is something going on in our body that is out of our control that needs some form of external input, whether by ourselves or the hands of another.

So let’s remove the word disease from our common use of language and call it what it is then. Simply aging.

Beginning somewhere between conception and birth, aging has been defined as a steady decline or reduction of physiological function that leads to increased susceptibility to diseases that will ultimately end in biological death.

Beginning –> Aging –> Disease –> Death/End

When compared to other mammals, humans have what appears on the surface to be a longer lifespan. Approximately 120 years according to what humans have defined as a solar year consisting of 365 1/4 days.

Sidenote: I would like to argue that all mammals within their individual context from their own perspective experience the same amount of perceptible time known as a lifespan regardless of how humans define time. The idea that a day to a human would be something like a week to a dog, as an example. This might explain why a dog is so happy to see its human that has been gone on a two-week vacation. To us humans, it has only been two weeks, but to that dog, perhaps, it has been something akin to us having been gone for almost 2 months time.

Standard evolutionary models of aging are explained as the full potential of our body’s ability to repair or replace cells that would allow for continued existence. The idea is that over time, what we call natural selection, through a process called senescence, or the deterioration of age, begins to exert less effort in the removal of our spent cells. Our body loses its will to take out the trash, if you will.

This brings me back to the state that we have classically called disease. And this is the basis by which I would like to suggest that we stop using this negative, pejorative term for what is simply the process of aging.

What’s Keeping Us From Living Our Fullest Life?

Look at the fangs on this fuzzy fella. He is a gibbon and gibbons are frugivores.

I used to think that the reason we humans have these teeth in our mouth that we call canines is that we were meant to eat meat. Well, this fuzzy fella has some crazy-looking fangs, yet he only eats fruit all day.

 

I’m not saying that we cannot eat meat, because surely we can and do. But just because we call 4 teeth in our mouth canine teeth and they vaguely look like what a canine has a mouthful of doesn’t mean that meats were to be eaten by us in the amounts we do.

I still plan on continuing my non-animal fare as long as wisdom leads me down that path. It makes the most sense to me from my studies over the last 4.5 years on how the human body works BEST.

Can we eat meat? Sure. Should we eat meat? Not to the extent that most of us do if there is plenty of fresh plant-based/whole-foods are readily available. But hey, if you happened to find yourself lost in the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska and the only things the Inuit have to offer is seal, then eat up my friend. It’s better than the other option.

If malnourishment were the other option for me I already have a plan in place for how I would go about consuming it. I’d rather be prepared than be caught off guard in that eventuality.

Can we humans fully function on a completely whole-food/plant-based diet alone? I am and I know a lot of other people that are doing it too, and we are all doing just fine. Am I 100% convinced that any one of us vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, or carnivore has it all figured out? No. There may yet be a better answer still.

These days we are living in a world of plenty where we have so many good options that we actually have the luxury to actually choose to do as we like. Something a lot of humans couldn’t have done just 150 short years ago. Many were just trying to maintain health or even simply survive. And sadly many suffered from all manner of malnourishment diseases that have been virtually vanquished in this world of plenty we live in today.

I personally can’t wait for the first person that has figured out how to live more than 120 years with a body that looks, feels, and functions like a healthy 24. It will start with a single person with sight beyond their own short life. A person that understands that there are things that are within our midst, within our grasp, within our power to control. Principles by which we can become the fullness of the life that was intended to be used by the intelligence that saw fit to gather our elements together into a cohesive bundle of energy. A life force bound up in this unique form for a purpose.

Do You Know Squat?

I’ve been practicing it daily now for 3.5 years. I drop down and hold for a 30 count first thing in the morning upon greeting the morning sun.

This after peddling my legs while laying on my back 50 times. 50 leg extensions while holding my legs with my hands behind my knees and then 100 leg curls while on my belly. It’s my way to start the day and get the engines running full steam ahead.

I also do 15 squats at a time, sometimes multiple times per day, while holding on to the kitchen sink. I may do that many times a day, but at least once so that I can do a tremendous amount of squats a year. How can that not do something positive for the body?

At this point in my morning routine, I do a full-body lymphatic where I massage all of my limbs and torso towards the jugular veins in my neck. The purpose of this is to keep all of the intracellular and lymphatic fluids moving in a positive direction, back into general vascular circulation for better overall health. I’ve seen the benefits in my own life. Here is what I’ve noticed.

Overall improved skin/tissue quality which in turn improves color and appearance.

It reduces fluid retention and swelling by moving excess water and metabolic waste from the tissues back into the lymphatic channels where our immune system can do its best work.

I’ve also noticed a better texture across my skin overall along with a reduction in scar tissues. My suspicion is that this makes our body more efficient at healing its injuries and illness related to direct trauma and surgeries.

And of course, possibly the greatest benefit of all, it is incredibly relaxing.

I have a very lofty goal of making it to 120 years of age with a body that looks and feels no more than a healthy, robust 34. But wouldn’t that be fascinating if I got to see my birthday in the year 2116? I would love nothing more than to celebrate my birthday at 144 with a body that looked and felt no more than 24.

I’m simply growing a fully refurbished body. And it is gonna last. This time I’m doing it the right way.

Death was once my master. Now it has become my greatest teacher. A wicked man that I once was, obeying the dictates bearing the fruits of ignorance in my daily life. I had no idea the path I was traveling and where it was going to lead me. But I have repented and now I will not relent. I have found joy in knowing that I am no longer a victim of circumstance or just bad luck because of genetics. That life is not a roll of some celestial dice. That it is not something that is in every way out of my control. But something more comforting, knowing that there is a will in this thing called life that wants us to not only be healthy and wise but also bear much good fruit unto life itself.

We are here for a reason. Life does not waste its force where there is no return on investment. We are here for a purpose and it is my pleasure to serve that greater good even if I don’t yet fully understand the goal. And that is why I am here to serve.

And it all begins with some squats at the beginning of each and every day with the first kiss of the merciful morning sun that brings me life and the motivation to rise to the occasion.