What'd he say?...
I have been reading. Nothing exciting for those who know me, but I had a bit of an epiphany (=aha moment).
There are people out there with life-changing/life-saving information who are not communicating it well enough for the average person, who needs it, to "get" it.
Let me give you the example that set me off.
I was reading a wonderful, potentially life-saving book called The Blood Sugar Solution by Mark Hyman, MD. I believe, after reading it, that Dr. Hyman genuinely wants people to experience wellness. He has experienced very serious illness himself and knows what we (average people) are up against in going to doctors. He got everything from "all in your mind/you're just depressed, take a Prozac" to "not sure, but surgery should fix it". He researched and fixed himself. His goal is to help others achieve NOT a relief from symptoms, which most doctors are going for, but TRUE HEALTH.
Let me give you a brief background. Dr. Hyman is trained in what is called Functional medicine. This means when you go in with a list of symptoms to be fixed, he looks at them from a viewpoint of which body systems - nervous, digestive, endocrine, etc. - are out of balance. His goal is not to give you drugs for these symptoms, but to re-balance those systems with natural therapies - exercise, food, supplements, etc. When you do what he prescribes, your systems come back in line and you heal yourself, most of the time.
Okay. Sounds simple so far.
What he said, that blew me away, was that there had been carefully monitored experiments which took samples of people's DNA before and after changing these natural activities. These experiments were able to prove that DNA changed just from these simple things in 3 Months!
Now if you are like me, you were taught that you "can't change your genes". Turns out this is a lie. (There are many other lies out there disguised as "common wisdom". More on those in later posts.)
What the experiments show is that you CAN change your DNA, in a positive direction and on your own determination. Let me give you an example of why this is so amazing - If you are a parent, then your children each have 1/2 your DNA and 1/2 your partner's. Let us say the both of you are overweight. Your DNA has switches (I won't get technical, just English.) that tell your body to store fat or burn fat. Not just 1 or 2 swiches. Science has now identified 60 or more! Some of these switches do positive things when turned on and some negative. Now, you have common wisdom that says your kid has no choice but to be fat since he/she inherited 2 sets of fat genes. Right? WRONG!
Yeah, he got the genes, but he can change them through diet and exercise choices. It's not as good as getting the right stuff from the beginning, I agree. Especially if he's living with "porkers", it is going to be uphill. But it can be done.
This is miraculous, stupendous, life-changing knowledge. I was able to get this information from his book because I have a decent IQ; massive vocabulary, including Latin; a knowledge of how to study and clear up terms I misunderstand; a husband who's an eye doctor and helps me understand terms that the dictionary doesn't explain well enough; and persistence. This piece of information was 100+ pages into the book. By then, most people had jumped to "what to eat" and missed it.
I am dumb-founded. The man has the knowledge. He wants people to get it, but he writes at a level that will make him sound "credible" to his fellow doctors. (Just one example - Instead of saying a hormone causes fat to be stored in the cells, he talks about "fat deposition". Average Joe says - " 'Deposition'? I know what that is. I heard them say that on LA Law. It's a something you have to get in writing before going to court, right? What's that got to do with fat?")
The average reading level in the US today is, questionably, 8th grade. That is definitely a plus or minus estimate. There are still a tremendous number of people being graduated from high school who are functionally illiterate (=can't read or write well enough to get and hold an office job). We get a tremendous amount of our vocabulary from watching TV, and making up definitions for words based on the way they are being used. This does not help us read things that could really make a difference. It only confuses us.
Someone needs to be writing about the kind of information in this book who both understands it and can communicate to the much larger number of people who need it. Doing this still won't help the illiterate (=can't read), but will get the word out more broadly. I may have to do that. I guess getting into writing and publishing short pieces and selling them on Amazon would be a helpful thing for a large number of people. (Who knows? I might even supplement Social Security. Ha!)
Dr. Hyman points out that there is an epidemic (=when disease becomes widespread) of diabetes, severe overweight, and related "diseases" in American today. We can fix it or we can go under. The drug companies sure won't because the cure won't make them money. The junk food companies won't since they will lose money. The FDA, who should be doing this, is still trying to make us get a prescription for vitamins because they are dangerous. (NOT! One half of FDA funding comes from the drug companies they are supposedly overseeing. They definitely know who butters their bread.)
Well,... My friends and family have been telling me I need to write for years. Guess I just had to reach that decision myself. LOL!
Oh,yeah! The take-away message from the book is this...
You can change your body from being a fat storing machine to fat burning machine in 3 months. You can change your DNA. This can change can also affect everything from concentration and memory to coughing to joints hurting to bloating to heart disease and cancer. You can do this without drugs or surgery. Get the book. Follow the plan. It can save your life or the life of someone you love. If you want help reading the science, let me know. Or look for me on AMAZON. ;-)
