THE World Health Organisation defines health in terms of both mental and physical well-being and not merely the absence of disease.
This is the definition of health that practitioners of complementary medicine subscribe to.
While public perceptions and beliefs on health are varied, in this final part of the series of articles on unravelling health myths, we take a look at more fallacies:
> Rate of ageing is inherited
We now know that our inherited genes play just a minor role in determining our health destiny. Our environment, attitudes and social economic status – in that order of importance – are factors crucial to our ageing process. Even identical twins brought up in different environments can have rather different lifespans. It has been demonstrated that our genes and DNA do not control our biology (Lipton, 2008). Instead, our DNA is controlled by signals external to our cell, including negative thoughts toward others. Modern anti-ageing medicine has much to offer in extending lifespan.
> Venting out anger relieves stress
Anger, unforgiving attitude, pessimism and low self-esteem can seriously damage your heart whereas an optimistic, contented and joyful attitude can strengthen its functions. Anxiety is predictive of fatal heart disease. For people with existing heart disease, anger can raise the risk of a second heart attack by 700% (Koskenvuo et al, 1988)!
> Replacing water with soft drink, alcohol
Most beverages sold commercially contain high levels of sugar or fructose syrup which promote dehydration leading to numerous chronic health disorders besides constipation. Other than balancing our blood pH, adequate water intake is essential for optimum health. We were born with 75% water in our body but many overweight people have less than 50%. If your body water drops by as little as 2% of your body weight, your physical and mental functions are impaired. When water loss reaches 7% of body weight, we may collapse.
> Calcium for strong bones
The majority of the 1,200 or so published research articles confirm that drinking milk or supplementing calcium alone cannot result in higher bone density (Lanou and Castleman, 2009). Our bone structure is formed from more than a dozen nutrients of which calcium is just one. Without adequate vitamin C intake, calcium is poorly absorbed. But excess calcium contributes to early diabetes, weak digestion, and possibly plaque formation in arteries. Bone density is improved by exercise, including walking, as well as by consuming more nutrient-dense alkaline foods and beverages. Lack of magnesium and hyperthyroidism promote excretion of calcium.
> Low cholesterol saves the heart
At least 50% of heart attacks happen in individuals having normal or low blood cholesterol. Hundreds of health and lifestyle issues contribute to atherosclerosis. Furthermore, recent research shows that only oxidised cholesterol is likely to stick to arteries to form plaque(s). Studies in Europe, North America, and recently in Hongkong have shown that very low blood cholesterol shortens one’s lifespan. The health consequences of elevated total cholesterol or blood fats are likely to depend on your levels of oxidative stress suffered.
> Sweet fruits are healthy
Many eat fruits because they taste sweet. Sugars are not created equal. Fructose is not alarming when measured by the glycaemic index. However, this fruit sugar strongly promotes insulin resistance which is a common pre-diabetic condition. Overly-ripe sweet fruits usually contain fungi too. Most research on the health benefits of fruits tends to focus on freshly harvested, organic berries and citrus fruits. If your blood sugar is really low, glucose seems to be a healthier sugar to take compared to fruit sugar.
> Organ meat vitalises organs
Brains contain lots of fat. By the time these organs are harvested from animals and sold, a large part of the fatty tissues they contain would have oxidised. The heart of chicken, for instance, is considered a most highly inflammatory meat. Consequently, excessive organ meat consumption can accelerate your ageing through chronic inflammation.
> Heart disease is irreversible
We are built for self-repair if our bodies are given the best opportunities to do so. A dozen texts by leading cardiologists and cardiac surgeons document this and other natural means of reversing the world’s deadliest health disorder since Ornish et al published their findings in Lancet in 1990.
> Cancer is a death sentence
There is hardly any chronic health disorder that programmes us to automatically die without our body’s immune system defending us to the very end. Toxins can come from water, beverages, food, air, or radiation. Cancer is probably another human adaptation process in our highly toxic environment. Genes play a small role in its development, and other possible causes include heavy metal toxicity, oxygen deprivation, and sustained attacks by free radicals.
It is the failure of our immune defence that leads to uncontrolled growth of abnormal (tumour) cells. All three stages of most types of cancer are now believed to be preventable or even reversible by a more holistic treatment approach. Results from local government hospitals using traditional Chinese medicine for cancer therapy testify to the merits of using this approach.
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