Backpack or Bedpan: Health Is a Choice

man with arms raised in front of mountain vista

With COVID 19 and SARS-2, healthy choices are more important than ever.

Several years ago, I wrote about health choices using the analogy “Backpack or Bedpan.” Today it’s become more evident than ever before to focus on making conscious health choices. In effect, we are now combining “Backpack and Bedpan” with COVID-19 or a severe flu and the possibility of being on a ventilator that comes with these ongoing threats.

It is hard to believe that over four years after the start of COVID-19, we are still seeing tens of thousands cases of COVID-19 reported every day, certainly a dramatic reduction from the hundreds of thousands reported at the height of COVID-19, however people are still getting sick from the virus.

nurse working in hospital

We almost always have a choice between health and illness. We can choose to be healthy and be out backpacking, or we can choose to ignore our health and risk becoming sick, with the possibility of living our days in an institution — such as a nursing home — using a bedpan. Illness can rob us of our independence.

Keep in mind that chronic illness does not just “show up” one day to cause problems. Some diseases take decades to develop, many of them developing silently, often with few or no symptoms. Understanding this and knowing that you have the option of acting to safeguard your health is the first step in preventing many disease states or chronic diseases from gaining a foothold. It’s much better to live your life in a way that prevents disease rather than learning to deal with an illness after it’s too late to reverse the damage.

We need to develop a greater focus on both our wellness and disease prevention, to look a little deeper than we have in the past. We need to ask questions that change our life by enhancing health and wellness. My hope is that the information contained in our blog and our APO E Gene Online Program will do just that.

Diabetes, insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, heart disease, arthritis, autoimmune disease, or generally living with a poor state of health can often present themselves without any major warning signs. Sometimes the first sign of these conditions arrives with a full-blown heart attack or stroke. Today, it has been showing up with the inability to mount a defense against a virus such as the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID 19). But this doesn't need to happen. Ask the questions:

“Why are some people having much milder symptoms of the COVID-19 disease than other people?”
“Why do some get COVID-19 and others don’t?”
“Why do some people have mild cold symptoms and others end up on a ventilator?”
“Can it just be good social distancing, or could does it have something to do with the strength of a person’s immune system?”

Keep in mind that 75% of a person’s immune system is in the human gut. Then remember that a large portion of the population in the United States has a chronic disease such as obesity or diabetes.

Being overweight or obese is a sign that your health and or immune system could be compromised, or that you have poor health. A check to see if one or more of these diseases may be present is certainly warranted. Keep in mind, being overweight is not only about your body image – it is a symptom of a serious underlying problem – not the problem itself.

Many of us think we know what we have to do to be healthy or stay healthy in the first place, yet we cannot seem to accomplish this goal. Why? Have you ever wondered why you have not been able to stay with a low-fat diet along with a rigorous exercise program? It could be that your body does not have the genetic makeup to be able to tolerate a very low-fat, or a low-carbohydrate, or a high-protein diet.

Remember, we have choices where our health is concerned, and we need to connect our lifestyle with its direct health outcomes. Some of these choices depend on our own individual genetic makeup, which we determine by testing for the APO E gene (the gene that transports fat and cholesterol in the body). I will be describing the APO E gene more in the next few weeks.

Commit now to becoming the healthiest person you can be. Consider what you want to be doing when you reach age 65, 75, 85, or even 95. Do you want to be outside backpacking, hiking, biking, or skiing with your family and friends? Or, do you want to spend your days institutionalized, needing help getting to the bathroom. If you choose to be out backpacking and active, then you need to explore your own unique genetic expression and change your health by walking the path of YOUR own body’s needs – not following a fad diet that has been made up for the masses and not your individual genotype. You are not the same as everyone else. You do not have the same genetic ability to transport fat and cholesterol as everyone else. Your individual needs requires exploration. Getting an APO E Gene Test is important for your healthy future. Using good science to direct your diet and exercise is crucial to not just your cardiovascular health but your overall health.

microscopic view of bacteria

The Immune System, Microbiome and Microbiota

Over the past 10 years the interest in the world of gut bacteria, the microbiota, and the microbiome has exploded. The unique world of gut science has grown to help improve the understanding of how the gut plays a part in the individual’s health.

In around 2010, as part of the University of Arizona Nutrition and Health Conference Content Team, we became interested in presenting information on gut bacteria. Back then, it was an interesting but not so well-known topic.

We first invited Dr. Justin Sonnenburg from Stanford University's Sonnenburg Lab to come and speak at our Nutrition and Health conference and it was a big hit. The emerging information was clearly cutting edge and it was exciting to see it coming to light.

We learned that we have trillions of microbes that live in our gastrointestinal tract, which can be an extremely diverse species – in the thousands. Gut microbiota (gut microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, and other organisms) is a main control center for critical biological activity such as metabolism, our immune system, and neurobiological health. We seem to be one giant collection of microbial bugs that play off each other to create a communication system to make us function. We are just a big set of organ systems and microbes. This alone is fascinating but add to that it is invisible to the human eye, unless looking into a microscope. And understand that you are looking at a part of your own intestine or skin microbiome. I am not sure we would all want to see our skin or intestines crawling with bacteria, but this is what is happening all the time, we just can’t see it; just like the SARS-CoV-2 virus that can’t be seen unless looking under a microscope.

The health of a person’s immune system and their microbiota varies extensively. It can be very healthy or extremely dysfunctional. Different things such as diet, environment, and genetics can impact the health of a person’s microbiota and immune system. Science is developing and we still don’t know the full story, but we do know that environment, diet and genetics play a big part in the health of a person’s gut bacteria, and ultimately the health of the person.

We also know that gut microbiota is an extremely dynamic, constantly changing community of microorganisms. The good news is that it is flexible. This may allow us to have great influence on the microbiota to turn off a disease as we develop better health and treat a person’s illness.

As part of the paid APO E Gene Online Program we have more detailed information on how the microbiome and microbiota work as well as lectures and information from leading experts.

6 Things You Can Do Now to Improve Your Health

Take the first step to a healthier you. Take your free health assessment today.
Examine your family health history and review possible risk factors. A family history of heart disease is one of the most powerful determinants of coronary artery disease (CAD) risk. CAD is independent of many heart disease risk factors including smoking, hypertension, diabetes, and high blood cholesterol.
Schedule a physical with your medical provider and discuss what you could do to help your health.
Evaluate your current diet and exercise and ask yourself if you could make any changes to improve your health.
Ask yourself if your vitamins and botanical supplements are the correct supplements for you? Find out through the APO E Gene Program.
Consider doing some advanced blood work that could help isolate issues and improve your immune system, reducing your disease risk factors. For example - the most common genetic causes of heart disease are not detected in routine blood cholesterol tests. Advanced blood testing is needed but most providers today do not include this testing in a routine physical exam. Find out what you need with your APO E Gene Program.

Supplement Suggestion: Help Improve the Immune System and Much More

triphala supplement

Triphala – An Incredibly Versatile and Useful Supplement

When I first learned about Ayur-Triphala, I was excited because it had so much positive evidence connected to its use. It is an ancient Ayurvedic supplement that has been used for thousands of years. Consider that for a moment, having something so effective for human health that it has been constantly in use for thousands of years. This alone is validation that it has a positive effect on health. With my patients as well, we’ve seen exceptional results when taking Ayur-Triphala for specific health conditions. The bottom line is this supplement works and works well.

While reviewing the research again, I was very pleased to see the research has expanded to include many other uses which includes evidence to improve the health of the microbiome, and microbiota.

Pam McDonald

Integrative Medicine

APOEGeneProgram.com

Research included:

Triphala Anti-cancer Benefits

Triphala Liver Protection, Appetite Stimulant, Immune Support, Anti Inflammatory, Antioxidant, Weight loss, Blood Sugar, Gastrointestinal

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