We have the power to prevent, reverse and manage chronic diseases. It is in every bite we take. Each of us is unique in our needs and the path we have to walk to restore and maintain balance (the key to health and wellness). What can guide our choices on this path?

We believe that food and medicine are one; there is no separation between these two since every bite we take has the ability to profoundly heal, or drastically harm us.

This article presents this belief as the perspective we need to keep improving our health and wellness throughout our lives.

• Cardiovascular diseases like heart attack and stroke.

• Chronic respiratory diseases like asthma.

• Diabetes and hypertension.

• Cancer.

Each of us has been directly affected by these diseases. Are we powerless to these conditions; are there choices we can make to prevent them?

Nutrition has come to the fore as the main modifiable determinant in chronic diseases. Metabolic risk factors (poor diet and physical inactivity) contribute to four key metabolic changes that increase the risk of NCDs. These changes include:

• Overweight and obesity.
  

• Raised blood pressure.

• Hyperglycemia (high blood sugar levels) and

• Hyperlipidemia (high levels of fat in the blood).

All these changes occur over time in our bodies due to what we regularly eat; that is our diet. Our dietary choices eventually trigger or prevent these diseases. Our choices thus have to be based on the belief that food is medicine; not just for sustenance, but to also prevent disease.

Let food be thy medicine, thy medicine be food.

Hippocrates - The father of modern medicine.

This perspective fully embraces that we are what we eat. Our body is a record of everything our parents ate; and what we have been eating in this lifetime.

 This story is not fixed in stone; it can be re-written and changed to suit the new informed choices we are now able to make.

A key philosophy that underlies natural and holistic medicines and healthcare systems is that: the body has its own inherent ability to heal itself when given the right environment. Disease is an imbalance in the physiological form whose cause can be traced based on the symptoms, environment and habits a person has; and reversed or managed by restoring balance to the whole form.

Practitioners of these Alternative Systems of health consider healthcare to be the constant care taken to create the correct environment for the body to work its magic.

Here, a patient is not seen as one who has disease symptoms to be cured; instead, a patient is a healthy being whose body is in a constant state of change.

Many ancient cultures have complete systems of health based on this belief. These include Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda. Each of this has specific guidelines to understanding the causes of imbalance and recommendations on what adjustments to make to restore balance to the human form.

It is said that learning creates change. I think learning provides knowledge which can be used to make different decisions. The experience from this actions taken are an endless well of experience which makes one wiser. Lol.

Thank you for reading this article to the end. I hope it has added some knowledge for you. Let us meet again and learn about what gives plants and food this ability to heal. 

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