As you continue the journey to be your most balanced, vibrant expression of health and vitality, I urge you to consider reviewing the importance of seeing this process from the Higher Self or Overview perspective. More often than not, we can become stuck on the details, looking for ways to add this “one new therapy” or that one “perfect supplement” with the expectation that it can finally be the “answer” to our discomfort and struggles. Many times we are disappointed that the “special thing in the bottle” didn’t work its magic for us. It is possible that supplement, therapy, or therapist IS the EXACT intervention needed, but not at this time, because we haven’t created the right environmental opportunities for it to be effective.
The analogy of building a house can be useful to demonstrate. Being diagnosed with ADHD or a genetic mutation like a homozygous MTHFR gene SNP can lead to an individual searching out a natural therapy such as neurofeedback (which is clinically proven to be highly effective for ADHD) or to begin taking a supplement called 5-tetrahydromethylfolate (which sometimes is useful for MTFHR genetic phenotypes). This is misguided thinking, however. It is akin to trying to design the second story bathroom or pick out the kitchen paint colors before you have poured the foundation into the ground.
Those “details” are important, and they may hold the key to the perfectly balanced house or brain. But they aren’t useful, and can even be counter-productive, if you are ignoring the foundation of your house or your body. The foundation for health expression includes some key factors, and they have to do with your choices.
Lifestyle Factors Determine Your Health Foundation
The synergistic and cumulative effect of the quality of how you eat, drink, breathe, think, move, sleep, and speak creates the quality of your body’s environment. This environment is what is controlling your genes, not the other way around. You are not a victim to your genes. This is clearly understood in science now. It is called epigenetics and has been dubbed “the science of change.” It means that the old way of thinking, in which we think of the nucleus of the cell as the “brain” because it contains the DNA which tells everything in the cell what to do, HAS BEEN PROVEN WRONG. And yet, they are still teaching this in schools to our children. What we now know, thanks in large part to Dr. Bruce Lipton, is that the DNA is actually just resting potential. It is controlled by its external environment. The external environment is truly the master controller of the DNA. Similar to a great computer, DNA can only do what it is told to do from the outside. The computer or DNA does its job brilliantly, but it is still not the one in charge. The external environment is in charge of the DNA. And the environment is overwhelmingly under our control to change as we see fit.
Foundation of Health Factors:
Environment
Environment can be a toxic mold home, how much sunlight exposure you receive, or a toxic codependent relationship, for instance. Environmental factors, more specifically, are known or suspected agents that affect your DNA include heavy metals, pesticides, diesel exhaust, tobacco smoke, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (a group of more than 100 different chemicals that are released from burning coal, oil, gasoline, trash, tobacco, wood, or other organic substances), hormones, radioactivity, viruses, bacteria, and basic nutrients.
Food
Factors to consider include amounts of certain nutrients or too much of an inflammatory agent destroying the gut and causing brain inflammation.
Water
Your drinking and cooking water can be clean and energizing or a dangerous carrier of neurotoxins creating permanent brain damage.
Air
Is the air clean and pure like in the mountains of Montana? Or is it dense, full of smog and dust like in Atlanta? Do you work in a poor air quality environment like a smoky casino? How often do you stop breathing during the day or at night?
Sleep
How much do you allow yourself to sleep, and what is the quality of said sleep? Are you in rhythm with the earth cycle of light and dark or are you up all night and sleep all day?
Movement
How much physical activity, aerobic exercise, and strength training exercise do you engage in every day? Is the body allowed to increase blood flow frequently to oxygenate, nourish, and detoxify to every square inch?
Mental Attitude
Do you often see the silver lining, or is there a dark cloud hanging over your head? Do you believe you can heal, or is your case hopeless? Do you say kind words to yourself, or are you critical and never satisfied with your efforts?
Focusing on these foundations of health may seem so basic that it isn’t slick or sexy, but that doesn’t mean it’s not powerful. Isn’t it preferable to put your child to bed at 8pm and feed them a low sugar-healthy fat and protein based diet than teach them they have a “learning disorder” and will need to take an addictive drug to learn and succeed?
This is the foundation of the house. And it is critical to developing a strong base for young brains, recovering damaged adult brains, and preventing or reversing the decline mistakenly associated with normal aging.
For more information about how Dr. Rimka addresses weaknesses and strengthens your Foundation for Health, please see our LEARN section.