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What is Natural?
by Dr Rowena Nicholson MBBS MRCGP DRCOG DipPCouns DipNSpH DipTHY&R BSEM member
[this article appeared in The Source magazine, Winter 2007]
Interest in natural health and living has never been greater, but just what is natural? Everything that we eat, breathe or touch effects us in some way, setting in motion a whole chain of cellular and other responses. Whilst there are some examples of illnesses which are purely genetic in cause, almost every other health problem has an environmental component. With soaring rates of cancer, heart disease, asthma, allergies, infertility and so on, we have to ask ourselves why. It is predicated that by 2040 at least half of the UK population will be diabetic, and given that diabetes can lead to many other serious health problems, ill health will have become the ‘norm’. Although life expectancy has been increasing, it is thought that we have now reached a peak, with falls expected for later generations. Our current elderly population lived through the war, which forced upon them a healthier diet and lifestyle than we enjoy now.
It is worth looking to our past to answer the question of what is natural. Humans evolved from apes about 8-10 million years ago, so the Stone Age is in fact recent in evolutionary terms and we have not changed our biology in a significant way since then. Whilst diet would have varied according to what was locally available, it is clear that we evolved on a diet of leaves, roots, berries, nuts, seeds, meat, fish and eggs. In hotter climates diet was more plant based, in artic regions more meat based. In addition, food intake was probably several thousand calories a day higher than today, so we were able to take more nutrients on board. We also spent most of our waking time outside, thus getting plenty of sunshine to produce vitamin D, and high levels of exercise meant we sweated out harmful toxins.
Contrast this with life today. Our diets are sugar and carbohydrate based. Grains came into our diet only 10 thousand years ago, and sugar itself has been significant really only in the last century. We have not had time to adapt, and the diabetes rates alone attest to this. Add to this processed foods, dairy, the falling mineral content of the soil, and the chemicals sprayed onto and added to foods. Thousands of new chemicals have been introduced into our environment in the last century. Whilst the human body is remarkable in its ability to detoxify and process many of these, the fact that we bioacculmulate many of these in our fat stores tells us that we cannot deal with everything. Smoking took several centuries to be officially linked with lung cancer and this was a clear causative link. Most things are much more complex than this, as many substances are harmful in combination with other factors, or after accumulation. The fact is that we just do not know the effect that many of these chemicals have on our health. Most people also now find themselves feeling constantly under stress which causes untold damage, in particular to our immune system and blood pressure.
Whilst this look back in time is eye opening, we cannot all go back to living like Stone Age man. What we can do is to consider what elements of his lifestyle we can re-introduce to support and nurture our health and wellbeing. We can all include more fresh vegetables and fruit in our diet, reduce our intake of processed foods and additives, and significantly reduce our consumption of sugar and refined carbohydrates. Good nutrition and the right supplements enhance our body’s ability to deal with chemicals and pollutants; this is because our body’s detoxification processes can place heavy demands on micronutrients. Regular exercise is important, as is showering afterwards, because sweating is our most efficient way of removing toxins and heavy metals from the body. Sunshine exposure is vital for Vitamin D production, because as well as being essential for bone health, we now know that Vitamin D is one of the most important anti-cancer nutrients. Spending more time outside also reduces our exposure to pollution, as despite the traffic, our indoor environments are more polluted than outside. However, we can help to clean up our home environment by choosing environmentally friendly personal and home cleaning products and paints. Also, we can consider ways to manage a busy or stressful lifestyle through practices such as yoga and meditation. In short, do what you can to achieve your own balance, then trust your body to manage the rest whilst you get on with enjoying life to the full.