I am always intrigued by how many people attending our classes are interested in learning more about Nutrition and the connection between sound nutrition and successful lymphedema management. The book I was referring to in one my last blogs, “Going Back To The Basics Of Human Health” by Mary Frost was the focus of our November 14th self-care class discussion. My thanks to Dr. Koss for recommending this book. It is an easy 82-page read and presents, in a very precise and easy to understand way, how nutritional deficiencies manifest into degenerative diseases; e.g. arthritis, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, alzheimers, cancer, autoimmune disorders, etc.
An interesting article in the Huffington Post a couple weeks ago, stated we can’t fix our health care system until we fix our food. Good point. Now that we are facing major uncertainties about the future of our health care system, doesn’t it seem like a good time to “go back to the basics” and start taking care of our own health? Shouldn’t we be asking more questions? Americans spend more money on health care than anyone else in the world, so why, of all the industrialized nations are we the unhealthiest? Why aren’t we investigating farming methods and ways to replenish the soil? (If you want to get that into perspective, read Michael Pollans’s “Omnivore’s Dilemma.” ) Do you remember Popeye?! Today he would have to eat 65 cups of spinach to get the same amount of iron he got in one cup of spinach in 1945! These comparisons help us understand the ongoing depletion of nutrients in our farmland and alert us to the necessity of supplementing today’s diet with whole natural vitamins — not coal tar based synthetic vitamins. Perhaps we should stop pointing fingers at the morbidly obese and realize most of these people are malnourished. Their bodies are screaming for missing nutrients — not sugar or refined flour, not transfats or hydrogenated oils, and certainly not processed or fast foods.
I truly believe if I had known 40 years ago, what I now know about nutrition and the importance of good digestion, I never would have had cancer nor allowed myself to get overweight, but the books weren’t in my library. Well they are now! And I have found a tremendous amount of self-help information on the internet.
I appreciated “Going Back To The Basics Of Human Health” enough to read it twice, and checked with Amazon to make sure they had more in stock. Yes, they do – even used copies for $1.60! If you are trying to understand the complexities of sound nutrition, I believe you will find this book very helpful. If you would like to meet Dr. Koss, Lynn’s and my “Health Coach,” just go to the Northwest Lymphedema Center website, www.nwlymphedemacenter.org, and click on self-care streaming videos, “Other Lymphedema Considerations”, as he and Allison, his medical assistant, have been guest speakers at the NWLC Patient Self-Care Class.
I was pleased to see “Going Back to the Basics of Human Health” at my chiroprators office this week — further assurance I was in good hands.