“Look well to the spine for the cause of disease.”
– Hippocrates
This is a great quote to ponder considering Hippocrates is not only revered as the father of medicine, but every doctor takes a ‘Hippocratic’ oath to first do no harm.
There are some who would argue that I personally am neither but that’s beside the point. This question, I hope, will encourage you to consider there’s a distinct difference, regardless of intention, that has become quite blurred if not outright lost in our daily lives.
What is average and what is normal? Lets take 98.6 for example; most people have come to understand this as the “normal” human body temperature however truth be told, it’s an average. One of the first attempts to determine an average was done by Dr. Carl Wunderlich in 1861 and impressively enough included recording the core body temperature of one million people. Since then, his recorded ‘average’ of 37 degrees Celsius has been converted to a ‘normal’ 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. This conversion does not unfortunately take into account age, sex, metabolism, time of day, activity and many other factors that continually influence the brains regulation of our body’s core temperature.
Subtle as it may seem, converting averages to normal can have profound affects on the way we think and behave with regards to our family’s health. Average blood pressure, cholesterol levels, hormone levels, nutritional intakes and much more soon become excuses to take medications or supplements that risk life and limb in our vain attempts to be “normal.” What’s normal for you may not be normal for me or anyone else for that matter. A better approach, and one I continually take in our office, is to ask why? Sticking with the example of temperature, why is it higher or lower than average? If your body is fighting an infection and raising the core body temperature in an attempt to heal, you certainly don’t want to interfere and make restoring health more difficult whereas if the body temperature is high because you’ve been working all day in the heat without keeping hydrated, you would be prudent to drink lots of water before suffering from heat stroke.
Anytime you see your doctor or consider questions about your health, take the time to ask yourself why? The answer will open the door to understanding the cause and understanding the cause opens the door to answer what, if anything, do I do to assist my body in expanding physical mental and spiritual well being.
My sister in law Theresa brought me a gift she thought I would be quite interested in reading. It was a cup from the Chipotle Mexican Grill with commentary on the side entitled Sour Cream, Without The Bitterness. Knowing my passion for discerning fact from fiction, especially when it comes to eating, moving, and thinking well, Theresa was eager to hear what I had to say and I, taken by the information provided, thought I would also share it with you.
Although there are several facts given which I found questionable, I would like, for the sake of brevity to focus on the one I believe is intentionally left to be glossed over. Chipotle, in my opinion, does a nice job of informing us of the potential dangers of Recombinant bovine growth hormone (r-BHG) and how it’s currently still used to increase milk production in the United States despite being banned in other countries. However, they then proceed to describe how Chipotle prefers instead to serve “naturally raised meats that come from vegetarian-fed animals that are humanely raised and never given antibiotics or growth hormones.” Lost and a bit comical in this otherwise great intention is that cows by nature are vegetarian. The average consumer such as myself would be excited rather to hear the cows are “grass fed” but Chipotle doesn’t offer that and I think for good reason. Reports show that 70% of corn grown in the United States and 80% of the soy beans grown in the world are fed to livestock which for cows, is without dispute, unnatural albeit vegetarian.
I applaud Chipotle for their sincere desire to serve “Food With Integrity” and want to believe that they are not trying to intentionally deceive. The facts however can only bear out that “Food With Integrity” can’t be spun by accepting one unnatural practice at the expense of another all while suggesting we are safer for the efforts. Buy local & Eat Well!