Understanding Why We Get Sick

I’ve asked myself this question many times “Why am I sick?”   Many people have asked me this question and I hope to shed some light on why we all get sick.   For me it was a blessing and I hope you can see your health challenges as a blessing when you are finished reading this chapter.   Let it be your wake-up call to a new tomorrow and use it for whatever God has planned for you!  

Again, what I am going to share is NOT new information.   Through my personal experiences and coaching others, I know that this information is truth undeniable and is the difference between living and dying.    I have read many books all with similar experiences and proof that people can change their health and the way they feel, simply by changing their diet and lifestyle.   Yes, your diet and the way you live your life is creating your sickness.  

We all know western nations are seriously troubled when it comes to nourishment. Obesity  and ill-heath are becoming epidemic. Our children eat junk, sit in front of televisions or computers and refuse to exercise.   They are at higher risks than ever before to succumb to diabetes and heart disease before they even leave their teens!   Fad diets always fail!   People can only lose weight and keep it off by going back to nature.   A quaint idea, yet it makes lots of sense.   There's a reason why hormonal concerns clear up after switching to a natural-whole foods diet. Same thing applies to why many are able to reverse serious illnesses by following this very diet.   When the answer is so simple, why do we continue to get sicker and sicker year after year?

What astounds me most about this question is why people aren’t willing to make the simple shift to eating a healthier diet in order to prevent or reverse disease?

The answer begins with food marketing, that most deceitful and deadly of professions. Food marketing is all about persuading you to go against your instincts, selling you on taste and texture, leaving your body with the nightmare of having to find the nutrition it needs to build more cells.   As long as it has enough sugar, salt, or fat in it, we will eat just about anything.

An example of this is evident in how often we visit fast food establishments on a daily basis. In America we spend over $200 billion dollars a year on fast food alone!

If you have not seen the movie Super Size Me  yet, I encourage you to see it and allow what happened to the director of the film to really sink in.   Morgan Spurlock, the producer, director and star of Super Size Me, made this documentary which documented his own weight gain while engaging in a 30-day experimental diet consisting exclusively of eating three meals a day and only from the McDonald's menu.   Also, when Spurlock was asked to "super size it,” he did. He also forced himself to consume everything on the McDonald's menu at least once. So what were the results for this 33-year-old man?    

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock shocked America and the fast-food industry with his experiment, gaining a pound a day during the month-long binge.   His weight soared from 185 lbs to 210 lbs, his cholesterol level jumped from 165 to an alarming 230, and his liver became toxic.   Although some critics like to point out that what happened to him is not a real picture of what is going on in our country or in our bodies, I beg to differ.   America is the land of plenty!   America is the unhealthiest, heaviest nation in the world.    Many homes have instituted the rule that you must be a part of the “clean plate club”.   In this country, we feel slighted unless our portions fill our entire plate.   We visit more buffet-style restaurants than any other and especially enjoy the all-you-can-eat buffets.   We continue to fill ourselves up with so much food void of any nutritional value that we never seem to get full!   So what do we do? We just keep on eating more junk.

Super Size Me , as of the end of July 2004, took in $11 million, out-grossing nearly every other art house film that summer.   This documentary forced McDonald’s into offering salads and removing the super sizes.   McDonald’s claim that they had plans to do this before the film was ever released!   

Here is some of what else I found out and feel you should know as well.   As a nation and world we get sick because we have accepted modern society’s diet and lifestyle.   We have violated the natural laws of God and stopped eating and living the way He intended for all of us.   The further man has gotten away from how God intended for us to live, the more man has had problems, i.e. health challenges.   Here is what I mean: we now eat more processed and packaged food, which is almost totally devoid of nutritional value and loaded with chemicals. We are expecting to live a long life while filling our bodies with nutrient deficient dead food!   How can you feel alive or healthy when you are full of dead food and chemicals?     

Another example so evident is that we now depend on prescription drugs to heal what ails us.   We look to doctors to correct each and every symptom.   We have put our trust in drug therapy so much that we have forgotten that our human body can and will restore itself if given the chance.   All it asks of us is to take care of it.   Yet, we can’t seem to make the time until we endure enough pain to want to do what is necessary to reclaim our health.   Most of the time, it is not until the symptoms exceed the amount of pills you want to take!   What is truly sad is when someone finds out they are in the battlefield of cancer and the majority of people put so much fear into them that they give in and allow themselves to give up any hope that they can win their fight!   They close the door to all hope and won’t try alternative therapies or eat in a way that prompts their immune system to take over and win!   Instead of changing their diets or the lifestyle that caused the problem, they put all of their hope into and trust into drugs offered by the medical profession. Visit the following website for more not so surprising statistics: www.chiro.org.

There are three top causes of death in the USA.

Number of deaths for leading causes of death ( http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/FASTATS/lcod.htm)

•   Heart disease: 652,091
•   Cancer: 559,312
•   Medical Error 250,000
•   Diabetes: 75,119 (http://www.dagc.org/diastatsUS.asp)

Every 24 hours:

•   4,100 new cases of diabetes are diagnosed
•   810 die from diabetes
•   230 people with diabetes will have a diabetes-related amputation
•   120 new patients will require kidney dialysis or transplant
•   55 will go blind

Nearly 65% of individuals with diabetes die from cardiovascular disease in the U.S., establishing it as the leading cause of death among this growing segment of the population

Heart Disease  – For 50% of all American’s a heart attack is their first symptom. Heart attacks are a silent killer and most people die from their first heart attack.   Heart disease is 10 times higher in the US than any other country. 

Cancer - 559 thousand people die every year from cancer. Every person’s body develops cancer cells (110 thousand per day). Most immune systems kill off these cells, but not in all cases. A person may feel great but on the inside they are having a serious internal breakdown while the cancer cells begin to mutate. It can take up to 5 to 10 years for a woman to even feel a lump in her breast.   This is why people can say I feel great but be dying from the inside out due to the over-acidification of their blood.   A symptom you often can’t feel and don’t know about until the symptoms/signs begin to demand your attention.

Medical System- The JOURNAL of the AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (JAMA) Vol 284, No 4, July 26th 2000 article written by Dr Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH, of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, shows that medical errors may be the third leading cause of death in the United States.

The report apparently shows there are 2,000 deaths/year from unnecessary surgery; 7000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals; 20,000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals; 80,000 deaths/year from infections in hospitals; 106,000 deaths/year from non-error, adverse effects of medications - these total up to 225,000 deaths per year in the US from iatrogenic causes which ranks these deaths as the # 3 killer. Iatrogenic is a term used when a patient dies as a direct result of treatments by a physician, whether it is from misdiagnosis of the ailment or from adverse drug reactions used to treat the illness. (drug reactions are the most common cause). Visit this site to learn more information about medical mistakes leading to death each year: http://www.cancure.org/medical_errors.htm

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimates that fully half of adverse reactions to medicines are the result of medical errors. Other adverse reactions--those that are unexpected and not preventable--are not considered errors. (See " When Is a Medical Product Too Risky?" in the September-October 1999 FDA Consumer.)

The statistics in the IOM report, which were based on two large studies, suggest that medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death among Americans, with error-caused deaths each year in hospitals alone exceeding those from motor vehicle accidents (43,458), breast cancer (42,297), or AIDS (16,516). FDA Consumer magazine September-October 2000

Medications do not really fix the problems inside the body but instead numb the pain and mask the symptoms causing the health challenge to begin with. Majority of medications do not cure the health challenge or pain. The problem is still growing inside of the body and the medications are usually needed to take for a lifetime.   We should not focus on how to mask the symptom with medication, but how to fix the root/cause of the symptom. I would be ignorant to say that all medicines are bad and should be avoided.    Medicines have their place and what I truly believe is that God has given man the intelligence to develop them to work for our good and His glory!    However, let’s keep in mind that the way most medicines are advertised and pushed upon the general public is anything but good.    We have become a society that wants the quickest and easiest fix to any hurt or ailment.   Anything worth having must be worked for.    To achieve the result we desire from a pill and return to good health, takes time and effort on our part.  

 Medications do not make people healthy. The body expels toxins into the bloodstream and this is not good for anyone.   The average life expectancy for a male in the US is 72.5 and female is 78.9. Canadians have a life expectancy 3 to 5 more years than we do. In Japan where they work longer hours and smoke more, they have a life expectancy of 8 to 10 years more than we do. A man and a woman are meant to live healthy lives for 80 good long years. Fact - most people over the age of 65 take 4 or more medications. People spend 1.8 trillion dollars on medications in the US. This number is up 600 billion dollars more than the last study done in 2003. We use 80% of the world's medications; the other 20% is used by all other countries in the world.  

Regardless of what health challenges people have told me they are dealing with, in their mind the fact that they are still living means they are doing just fine.   Many people point out that one of their grandparents is 80+ years old and is doing great.   The ones that are indeed enjoying quality of life are doing great, but what about the increasing number of elderly 70+ that are living in nursing homes, and in long term care facilities just waiting to die?   What we need to take a look at is this: you and I are not eating the same quality food as our grandparents.  

Since World War II, our food supply has been increasingly contaminated with chemical pesticides and preservatives that weaken our immune systems and cause an array of physical problems.   Do you know of a ‘safe” chemical whose sole purpose is to kill something?   Yet, every day people assume that because food is sold in their local grocery store or even health store, it is good for them.   I’m sure you know the saying so I won’t write it all out, never assume anything until you know the facts!   The foods we are consuming are less superior than they were 50 years ago, even 30 years ago. This is scary but true.   The downslide in our diets is caused by the poor quality of our mineral-deficient soil, the mass production found in the dairy and meat industries and the convenience of national food chains at almost every corner in local towns across the nation.   Gas stations have turned into mini restaurants that are filled with processed dead food!   To meet the demands of a modern lifestyle, our diets have changed.  

In the 1950’s Gerry Thomas introduced TV dinners .   He is the man who invented both the product and the name of the Swanson TV Dinner. More than 10 million TV dinners were sold during the first year of Swanson's national distribution. For $.98 per dinner, customers were able to choose among Salisbury steak, meatloaf, fried chicken, or turkey, served with potatoes and bright green peas with special desserts added later. Television commercials convinced the housewife that serving TV dinners would make life easier for her.   This was the beginning of fast meals, frozen dinners, drinks filled with artificial sweeteners and microwaves in almost every home to cook things as fast as possible.   What are the side effects of that kind of lifestyle?  Disease!  

I can’t think of one good reason to use a microwave – not even for heating up water.    All food that gets put into a microwave comes out DEAD!   Nice huh?   When we use it for a quick reheat – I remind myself it is a waste of the good, nutritious food I made the day before.   We don’t use it very often…maybe to reheat pasta or rice.

I went to a health expo about four years ago and the speaker was sharing the many benefits of a living foods diet. One truth he wanted everyone to understand is that, “health cannot be restored by taking drugs! Drugs cannot rebuild the cells of the body.   The body is self healing, when you practice a healthy lifestyle and eat foods that are alive and filled with life energy only then can your health be restored!”    It should not surprise you to learn that most of the foods that give us life energy are green.   God made no mistake when he filled the earth with grass as far as the eye could see and placed man first in the Garden of Eden.   The garden was all we ever needed and we have strayed so far away from it that it seems next to impossible for most to make the change to come back to what has been there all along.  

Our bodies were not created to be sick or overcome by disease; they were created to be full of vibrant health, clarity of mind and emotional stability.   The evidence is seen in the living foods God created and specially designed for us to eat.   It is through His perfect design that He created all the enzymes, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, bioflavonoid and thousands of other unpronounceable nutrients that are hidden in the skins of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains.   These are His gifts to us.  

A man’s spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?   An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. Proverbs  18:14-15

Sickness and disease are the symptoms of a world whose god is their stomach.   A world that runs after their cravings of the flesh, ignoring the costs of their health and selling their souls to a system that has proven itself incapable of delivering the promises it was built on – preventative medicine.   There is no prevention once you are taking medications.   There is no prevention once you are in the throws of cancer, diabetes, heart disease or obesity.  

I was extremely surprised when my husband handed me an article to read in Fast Company, May 2005 – Change  or Die ?   The article was so upsetting that I was ready to just throw in the towel and stop giving health talks.   Here was a statistic I just couldn’t get over – 90% of heart-bypass patients can’t (won’t) change their lifestyles even at the risk of dying.   What???   If this is true, I thought why bother trying to teach people to not only reclaim their health but how to achieve optimal health?  

What this article showed me was that in order for me to reach through to the people I work with and speak in front of, it is necessary that I   show them that making radical changes is not only necessary but quite simple.   Not an easy task I thought at the time.   Another statistic that might put things into perspective for you:   600,000 people have bypasses every year in the United States, 1.3 million heart patients have angioplasties – all at a cost of around $30 billion.   You might be surprised to hear that these procedures temporarily relieve chest pains but rarely prevent heart attacks or prolong life.  

Something else that hit home with me while working with so many people is that facts don’t inspire change. There has to be an emotional charge for people to follow through with change.   People hear what they want and what doesn’t make them wrong!   Unfortunately, the statistics prove you will either die of heart disease, some form of cancer, or complications from diabetes or obesity.   What I hope you can hear me say at this very moment is this, “it is NOT about you being wrong, it is about opening yourself up to change that will help you fight against being a statistic.”

A major reason why modern medicine and the scare tactic often used by doctors will never motivate individuals to change is that unless people can see the positive side of making changes, they never will.   People need support and they need to feel like they are succeeding along the way.   If you tell a person who is lonely, depressed and has lost interest in life that if they change the way they eat, they will live longer – to them that is more reason not to follow the doctor’s advice.   But if you take that same patient and show them how great it will be to start enjoying life and how it will feel being able to take walks again, enjoy time with their family and friends, doing the things they love without the pain associated with their disease – then and only then will they open their ears to listen.