Filingeri Vincent S - Super health with food

Knowledge of healthy food choices is the means by which we can realize super health. We are in control of our health and bodies. Our physical bodies are the result of what we have been doing (environment) with what nature gave us (genetics). Our genes are given to us through heredity. These genes are activated through how we live, eat, and think. A chain is as strong as its weakest link.

In a similar fashion, we are as strong/old as our weakest/youngest organ or body part. This book, Super Health With Food, emphasizes a proactive (prevention), not a reactive (intervention) approach. Lifestyle changes and choices are paramount for a healthy life. Optimum health and wellness consists of a systemic balance of the mind and body. Another major theme of this book is Hippocrates quote, Everything in excess is opposed to nature. Balance (homeostasis) eliminates excesses or deficits.

When we subject ourselves to excess, whether it is drugs, foods, chemical substances, environmental toxins, stresses, we facilitate a down regulation or habituation condition. These physical and psychological reactions lead to tolerance and a reduced response with an increased need to get more of the previous stimuli. All disease has its genesis in physical and psychological factors. Inflammation is present in all disease states and conditions. This inflammation could be oxidative stress at the cellular level (internal) or environmental toxins (external). The stressors that produce mild to moderate inflammation decrease immunity, while chronic or severe stressors increase autoimmunity.

The main goal of this book is for individuals to make informed healthy lifestyle food choices to prevent or minimize inflammation and disease. Illness can be prevented through lifestyle changes. Our belief system is important in the quest for super health. Ovid stated, He who can believe himself well, will be well. Healthcare results develop from placebo effects. Both positive and negative effects are outcomes of the patients belief in the healthcare provider and treatment method.

In addition, self-efficacy beliefs and the healthcare providers beliefs in the patient/treatment method are equally important. As a result of our belief system, we influence our thinking (positively/negatively), as well as our behavior and physiological reactivity. Disordered thinking/beliefs lead to disordered behavior/physiological reactivity. Reciprocally, disordered behavior/physiological reactivity lead to disordered thinking and beliefs. This book will focus on how super health can be achieved and maintained with food, emphasizing Hippocrates two previous quotations. It will place a strong emphasis on its usefulness to address the current leading causes of death in the United States.

This following chart lists the 15 leading causes of death with their respective number of cases: Leading Causes of Death in 2011 (U.S.) Cause / Number of Cases Heart Disease - 596,339 Cancer (Malignant Neoplasms) - 575,313 Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease (Bronchitis, Emphysema, Asthma) - 143,382 Stroke (Cerebrovascular Disease) - 128,931 Accidents (Unintentional Injuries) 122,777 Alzheimers Disease - 84, 691 Diabetes Mellitus - 73, 282 Influenza/Pneumonia - 53, 667 Nephritis, Nephrotic Syndrome, Nephrosis (Kidney) - 45,731 Intentional Self-Harm (Suicide) - 38,285 Septicemia (Blood Poisoning) - 35,539 Chronic Liver Disease/Cirrhosis - 33,539 Primary (Essential) Hypertension/Hypertensive Renal Disease -27, 477 Parkinsons Disease - 23, 107 Pneumonitis Due To Solids/Liquids (Inflammation of Lungs) - 18, 090 Source: United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. National Vital Statistics Report. (2012, October 10, Volume 61 Number 6). Death, Preliminary Data for 2011 by D.L.

Hoyer and J. Xi. Washington, D.C.: National Center for Health Statistics This section includes important quotes from the past and present . Consider the intrinsic meanings for all of them in your quest for super health. The quotations are as follows: Quotes to Ponder: Walking is mans best medicine - (Hippocrates) Everyone has a doctor in him or her, we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well - (Hippocrates) Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease - (vis medicatrix naturae - healing power of nature - (Hippocrates) If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health - (Hippocrates) It is far more important to know what person the disease has than what disease the person has - (Hippocrates) Leave your drugs in the chemists pot if you can heal the patient with food - (Hippocrates) The mechanisms of vis medicatrix - the most healing power of nature - are so effective that most diseases are self-terminating - (Renee Dubos) The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition - (Thomas Edison) The best doctor gives the least medicine - (Benjamin Franklin) Hes the best physician that knows the worthlessness of most medicines - (Benjamin Franklin) We become what we are thinking and feeling - (Benjamin Franklin) The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best - (Thomas Jefferson) The greatest wealth is health - (Virgil) Everyone should be his own physician - (Voltaire) The miracle of self-healing occurs when the inner patient yields to the inner physician - (Vernon Howard) Each patient carries his own doctor inside him.

We are at our best when they give the doctor who resides within each patient a chance to go to work - (Albert Schweitzer) We doctors do nothing, we only help and encourage the doctor within - (Albert Schweitzer) What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do - (Aristotle) The human body heals itself and nutrition provides the resources to accomplish the task - (Roger J. Williams) Prevention is better than cure - (Desiderius Erasmus) Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness - (Edward Stanley) The cure of the part should not be attempted without the cure of the whole - (Plato) The physician should not treat the disease but the patient who is suffering from it - (Miamonidies) The best and most efficient pharmacy is within your own system - (Robert C. Peale) Every human being is the author of his own health or disease - (Siddhartha Gautama- Buddha) The only way to keep your health is to eat what you dont want, drink what you dont like, and do what youd rather not - (Mark Twain) Today more than 95 % of all chronic disease is caused by food choice, toxic food ingredients, nutritional deficiencies, and lack of physical exercise - (Mike Adams) Let illness prevention be your intention, not sickness intervention - (Vincent S. Filingeri) There are some very important cautionary notes to emphasize here. If supplemental vitamins, minerals, omega fatty acids, amino acids, antioxidants, probiotic, hormones, and herbs/spices are used, then possible interactions with the following factors need to be considered: prescription/nonprescription medications, race, gender, age (child, senior), physical activity level, lifestyle, genetics, absorption rate, pregnant (or planning), breastfeeding (nursing/lactating), allergic reactions, smoking/alcohol use, major health issues (past/present), planning for surgery, and stress level. It is important to know that the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) limits Federal oversight.