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More about the physiology of the human cell
In order to function properly, each cell in our body has very specific raw
materials requirements. These nutrient raw materials enable each cell to
perform its specific metabolic task. As a result of healthy and normal
metabolism, each cell produces beneficial products, and each cell also produces
waste products that are detrimental and toxic to the host cell.
These toxic waste products must be identified, neutralized, and eliminated on
a regular basis or the host cell will get sick, degenerate and die. If the
cell replicates (divides or gives birth to offspring cells) in a condition of
unresolved toxicity, or unrepaired damage, or if it is weak, sick, or dis-eased,
it will pass on these irregularities to the offspring cells. This situation can
lead to the continuous replication of abnormal or irregular cells within
tissues and organs of the body.
Vigilant quality control - in the form of conscientious monitoring of the
incoming raw materials and the outgoing products and waste products of our
little cellular factories - is one of the keys to health. When cells are
healthy the symptoms of health are manifested in abundance…physical energy,
mental clarity, good moods, better digestion, no aches and pains, etc.
When cells are not healthy…the symptoms of cellular dis-ease begin
to show…fatigue, aches and pains, inattention, confusion, depression,
mood swings, indigestion, etc. The cells of our body are constantly
sending messages to the cells of our brain to make sure the brain is
aware of how all the little factories are doing. Think of the brain
as the inspector general for all those trillion plus factories. Are
we listening? Are we in communication with the inspector general in
our own body/brain/mind? How do we respond to the various calls we
get on a daily basis from the cells to the inspector general? How are
we communicating with our own internal cellular communication system?
According to our factory metaphor: How do we stay healthy?
- Choose only the highest quality raw materials
for fuel, repair, and building supplies. This is the area of diet
and nutrition and involves all the interconnected areas of food
selection and storage, meal planning and preparation, chewing
and digestion, transit time and elimination.
- Maintain the balance between incoming raw
materials and outgoing products and waste products. This is the
area of movement and rest and exercise! Exercise includes all
the vital habits that join forces to deliver nutrients to the
cells and to carry waste from the cells and out of the body. Movement
and rest, proper breathing and hydration, bending and stretching
our skeletal muscles, proper chewing and peristalsis (the proper
moving of the intestinal muscles) and digestion, transit time
and elimination. All the various nutrients and toxins make their
way into our cells and are carried away from our cells (once properly
identified and neutralized) primarily through the active circulation
of blood and lymph. Our blood circulates in very well defined
channels of arteries, veins, and capillaries…with the heart muscles
being the activating pump responsible for proper circulation.
Please note: we have twice as much lymphatic fluid in our body
than blood…and there is no lymphatic pump equivalent to the heart.
Lymphatic fluids contain lymphocytes, which are the cells that
make up the major cellular constituents of our immune system.
The primary purpose and most important reason to exercise regularly
is to make sure you are effectively circulating your lymphatic
fluid. In other words: You are the pump for your lymphatic fluid!
No matter how well you eat and drink…if you do not exercise… you
do not move your lymphatic fluid. If you do not move your lymphatic
fluid (effectively) than you are not succeeding in delivering
all the nutrients to all your cells and you are not succeeding
in carrying all those toxic wastes away from your cells. You do
not have to become an aerobics champion or martial artist or marathon
runner. You just have to move…regularly, consistently, effectively.
- Exercise vigilant quality control of the
factory. This is the area of mindfulness. This is the area of
personal responsibility. This is where the value of being proactive
in your own self-education and self-care really shows. You are
not only the Inspector General for all those trillion plus cellular
factories, you are the boss, the CEO…the buck stops with you!
So, extending our factory metaphor just a little bit longer… What
kind of CEO of your own body do you want to be? Some suggestions:
Do only what serves to produce the most desirable products and
waste products from your factory. Make responsible, ecological
choices every day. (Reduce, reuse and recycle whenever possible!)
Be fully present at all times to nourish, strengthen and acknowledge
everyone and every thing that contributes to the health and well-being
of the factory. Implement innovative proposals and ideas. Reward
all complimentary habits! Consistently praise every factory worker
at every level, every day for their tireless and awe-inspiring
work ethic…24-7-365…throughout your entire life!
Another helpful metaphor…
The saying that our body is our temple goes back a very long way. And all
temples, like all buildings, are built upon foundations. Imagine that the
cells of our body make up the materials that go into the construction of
the foundations of our temple. Imagine that our body is a house, and that
the cells of our body make up the foundation of that house. If our
foundations are strong, much can be built upon them. If our foundations
are weak, whatever we build, or attempt to build, will all come tumbling
down eventually.
Over the course of many years we have had the opportunity to examine many
foundation walls. We have discovered many cracks and gaps but only two
major categories that all these gaps and cracks can easily fall into…
- Nutrition Gaps
- Information Gaps
Identifying the gaps in our biological foundations
During the remainder of our journey to better nutrition we will be
identifying these gaps. These gaps are related to all the complimentary
and insulting habits in the rest of our diet and lifestyle. By taking
action to change the insulting habits that have caused these gaps, we will
begin the exciting process of effectively filling them in. We simply need
to direct our focus and attention on identifying complimentary and
biomodulating habits and then implement them consistently and effectively!
By doing so we will restore the health of our biological foundation and move
confidently in the direction of optimum health and well-being.
Nutrition Gaps
The quality of our incoming raw materials has been seriously compromised.
During the last few generations, not only has there been a thorough and
systematic alteration, degradation, and destruction of the environment,
but there has also been a series of bizarre technological innovations in
the areas of cooking, processing, preserving, fortifying, and packaging
of our foods that can only be described as giant leaps backwards when
measuring the various negative impacts on our health.
"The real test of the value of refined (fortified) foods would be to
put a group of lab animals on a diet of white bread and compare them
to a group fed a diet of whole-grain bread. In one such experiment,
two thirds of the rats kept on a diet of enriched white bread died
before the experiment was finished." (Select Committee on Nutrition
and Human Needs, United States Senate. Dietary Goals for the United
States 1977.)
"I am thoroughly convinced that the Perfect American Diet is mere fiction.
I do not think it is possible, much less likely, that anyone can consume
adequate amounts of balanced nutrients in an unsupplemented diet. I have
tried, and have been unable to do so and remain healthy. The increased
health and happiness in our family brought on by good nutrition has been
worth every penny. Good nutrition does not cost…it pays!"
from Nutrition, Health and Disease by Gary Price Todd, M.D.
Too many people find themselves overfed, yet undernourished.
This causes people to endlessly consume excessive amounts of various
insulting foods and insufficient amounts of complimentary foods.
Re-establishing a steady flow of the highest quality whole foods and
whole food supplements into our bodies and into our cells is the very
best way to fill in our Nutrition Gaps.
Information Gaps
Think about the dizzying assortment of print, radio, television, and
internet ads and commercials, celebrity sound bites, late breaking news
stories, cutting edge research reports, doctor's recommendations, and the
advice from various health and nutrition experts (and non-experts!) that
we have seen and heard in our lifetime. Where's the common ground?
Where do all the experts agree?
The truth is, among the so-called experts, there seems to be very little
agreement and almost no discernible common ground. The truth is, you can
probably find any number of clinical studies and experts to either support
or refute just about any health claim ever made. Where does this leave
the rest of us? It leaves us eating and digesting an information diet
filled with conflict and controversy.
Like our actual food, water and air supplies, our information diet is often
poisoned and polluted on the one hand, and incomplete, inconsistent, and
insubstantial on the other. The result of all this misinformation?
Uncertainty.
This uncertainty is at the root of so much suffering in our world today.
Because of such a poor information diet, most modern people experience a
fundamental uncertainty about what to eat and why. This is a distinct
cultural and historical aberration particularly unique to the last 150
years or so. If it weren't so tragic, it would be laughable. Imagine being
an adult and not knowing the most basic answers to the question: What
nourishes me best?
Throughout history, most people have not been in conflict on a daily basis
about what to eat and why. Food was food! By and large people ate what
was available to them according to the season, their local geography and
climate, and their own particular ethnic ancestral traditions.
Today all of this has changed. Our multi-cultural marketplace of goods
and services has simply given us too many choices. To whom can we turn
for agreement and consensus on the topic of what to eat and why. This
uncertainty runs contrary to one of our deepest and most basic of all
human instincts: the desire to be nourished and to nourish others with
food. This uncertainty creates stress at a very deep level of our being.
It is a stress that is rarely identified. Consequently, it eats away at
us, as all negative stress does, and we begin to manifest the ill effects
of a strange, unnatural internal erosion.
Is it any wonder that so many people report being sick and tired? Overfed,
undernourished, misinformed, uncertain, stressed-out, overwhelmed…
Do you ever feel this way?
Re-establishing a steady flow of accurate, vital information in the context
of purposeful dialogue and conversation is the very best way to fill in our
Information Gaps.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.
-Chinese proverb
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