Health

Can we control our state of health?

Hypochondriacs are able to manifest real symptoms, without actually being ill. For some people, it is possible to control pain using simple mind and breathing techniques. Yet there are also people that no amount of pain medication short of a lethal dose that can ease their pain. Those infused with a strong survival instinct, flushed with endorphins immediately after an injury, can move to a place of relative safety (even with broken bones). Do our emotions and mental state reflect our physical condition? The few times I�ve been sick recently, I had a corresponding increase in my level of stress (something all parents experience at one time or another). When the stress level went down, I recovered.

My wife believes that going from warm to cold to warm will give her a cold, and it does. I believe it does no such thing and I rarely get colds. When one of those "bugs" that everyone else seems to get hits my home, I take extra vitamin C and eat more chiles and garlic (most of the time it skips me). Is it the vitamin C, the chiles, the garlic or my belief that taking those things that provides my protection? It really doesn�t matter to me, as I enjoy the chiles and garlic and the overall effect is a definite boost to my immune system. When I have been hit, extra sleep added to my regimen seems to knock the bug out of me in less time than anyone else in my family.

I am much more physically active than my wife and my sons. What effect does this have? I suspect that because of the increased blood flow physical activity requires, my system is cleansing itself more efficiently. Since toxins don�t get much of a chance to build up in my bloodstream, viral and bacterial agents are more easily spotted and fought by my immune system. When I was younger, I wasn�t as active and I got sick more often. Is it possible that the teacher often thought of as the least competent among teachers, (Those that can�t teach. Those that can�t teach, teach gym.) in reality have the most important information this nation full of couch potatoes needs? Now that I look back towards that time, I see that message quite clearly and am glad that I was able to utilize the information (even though I hated gym class). I know I must remain active in order to stay well.

Does God�s intervention in our lives give or cure disease? I don�t think so, it is more likely that some people make poor choices that interfere in a possible recovery from their disease because they think God willed them to be sick? Wouldn�t a loving God tell those people to stop blaming him and start fighting their disease with as much activity as they can muster each day. Does prayer aid in healing? Could knowing others care enough to pray speed up the recovery process? Since therapeutic manipulations of our "energy field", due to lack of finding an "energy field", has been demonstrated to not be valid under lab conditions, is it more likely that the known physical presence of someone that cares the process that motivates our brain to make an effort to heal ourselves? I perceive love from my family (they say they love me and I choose to believe them), and my mind applies that love to my own desire to get well and my recovery goes along smoothly. Would I have recovered as fast if I didn�t feel that love? I don�t think so, but my anecdotal evidence of being loved is not evidence that others can send us any kind of healing energy. In order for any of us to get well, we must believe we will get well, add in the perceived desires of others to our desire to get well, and then actively seek out the knowledge to get well.

Since we control how we well we are, we should use that power wisely. I encourage all of you to get off your chairs and start living. Who out there wants to die in front of a television or computer.