Our Health Is Largely in Our Hands

Months from now, hopefully, the coronavirus pandemic will be over. Then, we must embrace the notion that we are fortunate to be on earth at this time. Ours is the first era where people can largely take charge of their own health.

Thanks to an abundance of resources, available primarily via the Internet, we have the opportunity to diagnose and to take action regarding what ails us more often and more effectively than any generation before us. Sites such as WebMD, Healthline, Medical News Today, and CDC.gov are among dozens of sites that provide a wealth of authoritative information.

Certainly, doctors still play an important role and always will. We never want to substitute legitimate medical observation for what we conclude on our own. However, what we can research and discover as a result of our comprehensive reading increasingly represents reasonably sound information.

Natural Cures Abound

Sometimes we can avoid having to pay for expensive visits to doctors, outpatient services, clinics, or labs. Today, for whatever ails you, it might be possible to find potential natural remedies and to minimize ingesting pharmaceuticals. And why not? For tens of thousands of years prior to our recent history, people communed with nature, and they gleaned many health-enhancing gifts that nature had to offer.

Hundreds upon hundreds of herbal remedies, and plant and flower extracts were discovered through the ages, passed on to offspring, and are available to us today. One can search online and find potential natural cures for this affliction or that. Food is a remedy in many cases.

When else has humankind ever had the capability to learn so much, so easily, that could be of value to one’s health? Rather than endure a surgical procedure, as recently as one score ago often perceived as the only option, alternatives might well abound.

For example, instead of undergoing surgery for spine-related discomfort, if practiced diligently and correctly, yoga could serve you well. Undertaking the exploration is worth the pursuit. Thereafter, if surgery is the most prudent path to take, with the advances in surgical procedures, if you must be operated on, it’s likely to be to your benefit.

Daily Wonders

For many people, daily health and well-being is within one’s grasp much of the time. We can find legitimate information to help lower blood pressure, stave off headaches, or minimize stress.

Meditation is effective as a stress reducer. If you’ve never tried it, don’t knock it. Medical journals today discuss the multitude of benefits that accrue to regular meditators. This very site, in particular, provides such information.

The physical manifestation of meditation, the aforementioned yoga, is beneficial to your health. Yoga is proving to be a physical “elixir” of sorts that can help you in ways that normally one wouldn’t presume.

Stretching can work wonders, and the older you are, the more likely you need to be stretching on a regular basis. You can buy books on stretching, such as Stretching to Stay Young, Stretching for Beginners, and Better Stretching: 9 Minutes a Day.

You can read articles on stretching, and view YouTube videos on the topic. You can quickly gather a variety of key illustrations, and carve out for yourself a program that could last for months or years. Even doing simple stretches yield amazing results.

Exercise is vital to effective mind-body functioning. Exercise offers you greater mobility, enhanced mental sharpness, better sleep, better digestion and elimination, and much more. As with meditation, yoga, and stretching, a host of web resources are available to guide you. If you engage in sports, or seek to take up a new sport, the same opportunities abound.

Pharmaceuticals, Cautiously

As you assume greater charge of your health, you’ll encounter information about supplements. They will show up in your reading. Many people are confused between vitamins and food supplements, versus pharmaceuticals and prescription drugs.

Vitamins and supplements essentially are the crushed extracts of a larger volume of food. The best have no additives. They give you the benefits, in part, that the original source would provide. Many supplements have evidence-based benefits with almost no side effects. A good example is turmeric, which is touted at length at WebMD.

Resveratrol is another example. Healthline.com reports, “If you’ve heard that red wine can help lower cholesterol, chances are you’ve heard of resveratrol… Beyond being a healthful part of red wine and other foods, resveratrol has health-boosting potential in its own right… and resveratrol supplements have been linked to many exciting health benefits, including protecting brain function and lowering blood pressure.”

Pharmaceuticals and prescription drugs, those from a pharmacy, are chemical compounds manufactured in a laboratory, often made with synthetic materials, designed to create or achieve a specific outcome within your body. Depending on your affliction, pharmaceuticals could be beneficial.

Pharmaceuticals might include a host of additives and preservatives, however, that you don’t need. Pharmaceuticals also can become habit-forming, that is, addictive. They invariably come with direct effects, which colloquially are called “side effects.” The long list of side effects issued at a rapid pace on TV commercials could well appear.

Working in Tandem

For most of us, gone are the days when we walk into a doctor’s office, announce what’s wrong, and then ask, “Can you fix me?” You and the doctor are a team, and the team approach will work better than anything else currently going.

Enlightened doctors today recognize the importance of working with you, as opposed to being the dominant or sole-source of medical and health information. They realize that you can quickly find authoritative health advice. They know that you’re likely armed with such information when you arrive. For sure, help your doctor to help you.

Discover as much as you can about your situation before your appointment. Then, spill the beans. Let the doctor know what you’ve uncovered, what you suspect, and what you conclude.

About the Author

Jeff Davidson, the world’s only holder of the title “The Work-Life Balance Expert®” as awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, is the premier thought leader on work-life balance issues. Jeff speaks to organizations that seek to enhance their overall productivity by improving the work-life balance of their people. He is the author of Everyday Project Management, Breathing Space, and Simpler Living. Visit BreathingSpace.com.

If you enjoyed this article, sign up below for the Blooming Lotus Newsletter and we’ll notify you when the next article is released: