Lifestyle Medicine or Lifelong Medicine – Choose Wisely?
More often than not, when the topic of preventive healthcare arises, it is uncommon for an individual to say, “But I am a healthy individual.”. Why should we invest in preventive wellness? Spending money on tests when I am asymptomatic makes no sense! It is like wasting resources in preparation for calamities yet to occur!”
My advice to them is to sit back, relax, take a trip down memory lane, and remember the age-old maxim that our school taught us – “Prevention is better than cure”.
Spending on health and wellness in a way that adds value to your living is not a cost, it is an investment.
Preventive wellness is not just health care to treat illness, but healthcare to prevent disease onset in the first place. Does this only involve regular screenings? Not at all. Holistic approaches include diagnosing lifestyle diseases, treating them, and making sustainable lifestyle changes.
It is much easier for us to recover faster when we treat every organ in our body with great care.
Also, it is crucial to consider the quality of the daily products or groceries. Your lifestyle changes are also heavily influenced by this.
Through Integrative and Lifestyle Medicine and Holistic Nutrition, food and lifestyle are powerful tools for alleviating pain in people suffering from severe illnesses and lifestyle diseases. Unfortunately, the quality of products available today is highly questionable. Choosing chemical-free, ethically sourced, organic, sustainably produced products from an honest market is of the utmost importance.
A conventional farming method involves using harmful chemicals, GMOs, synthetic pesticides, and fertilizers. In contrast, organic foods are grown without synthetic pesticides or artificial fertilizers. While these chemicals are safe to use in conventional farming and are present in food at low levels, they have been found to have adverse health effects. Imagine how pesticides would affect humans if they were used to kill pests.
However, organic is commonly thought to mean pesticide-free. In some cases, it is true but not always. Foods that are organic do not contain genetically modified organisms. While organic pesticides come from natural sources and are not processed, they also contain certain chemicals found in non-organic pesticides.
The benefits of organic and chemical-free meat are also numerous. No antibiotics or synthetic hormones are present in organic meat. Animals raised conventionally can be fed antibiotics to prevent illness, making it easier for farmers to breed them under crowded or unsanitary conditions. There is evidence that these residues contribute to widespread antibiotic resistance, the onset of early puberty, growth of tumors, heightened cancer risk, risk of autoimmune conditions, and genetic problems. Organic meat, produced without antibiotics, is intrinsically safer in this respect.
Organic or ethically sourced foods have higher antioxidants, high levels of vitamins, minerals, and lower saturated fat than their conventional counterparts. It also helps preserve our ecosystem and also prevents us from deadly diseases.
Choosing organic or ethically sourced products should be done with complete and correct knowledge. When buying organic food, go local to avoid possible pesticides.
Though organic foods and chemical-free products might cost more, it is always better to invest in preventative wellness than in medicines. The environment and we deserve a healthier, more sustainable food system for a better overall lifestyle.
(The author is Co-Founder of youcarelifestyle.com. Views expressed are personal)
By Luke Coutinho
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