Do You Know How To Reach Your Health Potential? Part 1 – The Problem

We all want to be healthy. There is no doubt in my mind about this. But there is a severe lack of education in our country regarding what we actually have to do in order to BE HEALTHY! This is a problem that has become my mission to help with.

Our current reality is that the path that most of us are on is not working, and will not work.

Just because you may feel “okay” right now, or you take a medication to address a symptom, this does NOT mean that you are healthy. Chronic illness is largely a silent problem, and can develop for years before anything is found in your annual medical check-up.

Chronic illness is at PANDEMIC levels in North America. We have the sickest children, teenagers, adults, and elderly in the history of our species; in the history of ANY species. Chronic illness is the leading cause of death and suffering in North America, and over 80% of our workforce has one. 49% of the entire Canadian population has one.

Chronic illness rates have risen exponentially since 1900. And during this same time period, our genes have remained unchanged, and prescription medication use has risen exponentially.The ONLY thing that has changed in this time period is that we have seen DRASTIC changes in our lifestyle away from what we genetically require as a species. These changes mirror the increases in chronic illness EXACTLY.

Science is pleading with us to understand that chronic illness is a LIFESTYLE ILLNESS, not a genetic problem.
Let me dismantle the 2 other most common myths for you.

1. We are NOT sick because we are living longer. The most rapid and significant increases in chronic illness are amongst children, teenagers, and middle-aged adults.
2. We are NOT simply detecting more illness and thus skewing the data regarding chronic illness incidence. Obesity alone, which is a causal factor in virtually every other chronic illness, has increased exponentially in just the last few decades. Detecting obesity has never required advanced technology. It requires a scale and perhaps a tool to measure body fat percentage or body mass index. These are not new.

The single greatest determinant of whether you will get sick or get well IS YOUR LIFESTYLE CHOICES.

Despite the science being so clear, less than 3% of current health care costs are allocated to prevention. Most of this 3% is allocated to diagnostic testing and prophylactic drug intervention. 71% of all visits to a general medical practitioner result in the prescription of drugs. And less than 1% of health care costs are allocated for healthy lifestyle programs.

This is all despite a 2008 Congressional report estimating that up to 1/3 of health care expenditures result in ZERO BENEFIT.

Between 2002 and 2005 prescription rates FOR CHILDREN increased as follows:

• Cholesterol prescriptions up 15%
• ADHD prescriptions up 40%
• Asthma prescriptions up to 47%
• Type 2 Diabetes prescriptions up 148%

The scientific evidence is unequivocal. Drugs and surgery NEVER HAVE and NEVER WILL prevent or cure lifestyle illnesses.

The lifestyle choices (how you eat, move, and think) you make each day DO matter, and they matter to a MUCH larger degree than you think. That food you ate, those vegetables that you didn’t eat, that exercise you didn’t get, that poor movement of your spinal column, that thought process you allowed yourself to have, that way you communicated with your spouse, etc, etc. It all adds up.

Make no mistake about it. The lifestyle choices that YOU MAKE for YOU AND YOUR FAMILY will either save lives or cost lives. There is no such thing as a consequence-free lifestyle choice. Stop settling for the average, which is very poor. Stop thinking that health is the result of luck or genetics. Become accurate.
Starting a healthy lifestyle is not all or nothing. It does not require depriving yourself of what you love, or forcing yourself to do things that you dislike. You can start with the small, easy things will move you closer towards your goal.

Doing nothing about what you are currently doing, is not an option. Learn what your body genetically requires, and learn the science of personal change.

Doing the right thing is possible, and I CAN HELP YOU!

-Dr. Mark Hunter B.Sc., Dip. S.I.M., D.C., C.C.W.P.