LEADING a common sense, healthy lifestyle is your best bet to avoid unnecessary hospital visits and drug dependence. There are certain basic tenets of optimal health that remain valid, no matter what science decides to come up with next. Following these healthy lifestyle guidelines can go a long way toward keeping you well and preventing chronic diseases of all kinds.

Proper food choices

Generally speaking, you should be looking to focus your diet on whole, ideally organic, unprocessed foods. Avoid sugar, and fructose in particular. All forms of sugar have toxic effects when consumed in excess, and drive multiple disease processes in your body, not the least of which is insulin resistance, a major cause of chronic disease and accelerated ageing. The two primary keys for successful weight management are severely restricting carbohydrates which are sugars, fructose, and grains/breads, in your diet, and increasing healthy fat consumption. This will optimise insulin and leptin levels, which is key for maintaining a healthy weight and optimal health.

I always advise people to eat lots of raw fruits and vegetables of all kinds – especially green, leafy ones. Also, steaming them is much healthier than frying or other cooking methods, if you just can’t stomach them raw.

And be very choosy with amounts and types of protein sources. Small to mid-sized, clean fish is the best primary choice for protein, as well as essential omega acids. Then, clean, hormone-free chickens. The proper amount to ingest would be what fits in the palm of your hand. Next, lean cuts of grass-fed beef and/or various nuts and legumes; and lastly, other seafoods and pork, which are the most acidic and allergic types of meat that can be ingested as food. They are also the most frequent to have infectious elements such as trichinosis and shigella, etc, so either eliminate them, or moderate them carefully. Always flush with plenty of pure water and some coconut water for ion balances.

Regular exercise

To make your exercise as effective as possible, make sure you include high-intensity activities into your rotation. High-intensity, interval-type training boosts human growth hormone (HGH) production, which is essential for optimal health, strength, and vigor. HGH also helps boost weight loss. The best recommendation I can make for anyone is swimming. Swimming is a non-gravity, non-weight-bearing, non-impact exercise that tones and strengthens all muscle groups in the body. It is both aerobic as well as anaerobic. If you get into the habit of swimming just 10 laps per day regularly, then you will be in the best shape, physically, of your life before long. Don’t have a pool? Let me remind you that you live in a literal paradise surrounded by a natural pool that is millions of gallons in size. Furthermore, the salinity of seawater is very healthy to the human body and skin as well. It can revitalise and ward off opportunistically invasive organisms.

Seawater contains vital elements, vitamins, mineral salts, trace elements, amino acids, and living microorganisms that can produce antibiotic and antibacterial effects to help promote a healthy immune system. Reportedly, the components of seawater, similar to human blood plasma, are easily absorbed and utilised by your body while swimming.

Stress Reduction

Your emotional state plays a role in nearly every physical disease, from heart disease and depression, to arthritis and cancer. Meditation, prayer, social support, and exercise are all viable options that can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium.

Drink plenty of pure water

Tap water can contain many things that cause problems, discomfort and disease. It can be contaminated with bacteria and virus, and even illegal drugs, but the bigger threat is the effects of legal drugs and treatment processes. The body has to filter and excrete these toxins. When that happens, of course, they enter the wastewater, which eventually is treated and ends up back in the public water supply. These drugs and such cannot be filtered out. The particles many times are simply too small. And, odds are that most municipal water commonly contains antidepressants at the very least.

Next, you must understand that not all things proclaimed to be good or healthy always are, in reality. The fact is that too much fluoride can cause fluorosis of the teeth, and severe health and mental problems with prolonged use and ingestion. Yes, they claim that the amounts are minimal and that fluoride occurs naturally in the world, and that it is in many products that humans consume, but this does not make it safe. They try to equate it to adding vitamin D to milk; however, the dangerous point that everyone misses when they accept such a claim is that fluoride is not a mineral or a vitamin. Fluoride is toxic and it is a waste by-product of chemical reactions. Most often it enters the public water system as a by-product from the fertiliser, aluminum and other industries, who manage to sell this toxic waste to municipalities worldwide for human consumption – incredible, but a fact. Fluoride is more toxic than lead and slightly less toxic than arsenic at comparably high levels.

Find purified water from a natural source and drink that instead. And, brush your teeth and your children’s teeth with natural, gentle abrasives such as aluminum-free baking soda instead of toxic toothpastes. If they were not toxic, then there would not be warnings on them and contact numbers to poison control centres. And there would certainly be no need of a disclaimer stating not to give it to infants less than one year, some state six months old. Why? Because infants don’t yet understand that you have to override the swallow reflex when brushing your teeth. Worried about your breath? Use natural herbs or spices or a leaf or two of fresh mint, because fluoride is not the only poison in toothpastes, there are many – sodium laurel sulfate is one example. It causes the foamy, clean effect of brushing and is also an industrial cleaner.

Maintain a healthy gut

About 80 per cent of your immune system resides in your gut, and research is stacking up showing that probiotics, beneficial bacteria, affect your health in a myriad ways. It can even influence your ability to lose weight. Regularly consuming traditionally fermented foods is the easiest, most cost-effective way to ensure optimal gut flora. And, overuse of antibiotics not only kill the bad bacteria, but also the good.

Optimise your vitamin D levels

Research has shown that increasing your vitamin D levels, especially D3, can reduce your risk of death from all causes or diseases. Apparently natural supplements with cod liver oil are excellent sources for this vitamin, along with numerous raw vegetables, nuts and fruits. Sensible exposure to the sun is the ideal way to optimise your levels of vitamin D. You need at least 10 minutes of natural exposure each day.

Avoid as many chemicals, toxins and pollutants as possible

This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives, which can easily be found. For instance, food quality diatomaceous earth (DE) can be very effective for all insect problems and is completely safe for humans. You can also research baking soda, and even borax, which needs to be used more cautiously. You can basically find a natural remedy or treatment for just about anything you currently do commercially with toxic, carcinogenic products and compounds.

Get plenty sleep

Regularly catching only a few hours of sleep can hinder metabolism and hormone production in a way that is similar to the effects of aging and the early stages of diabetes. Chronic sleep loss may speed the onset or increase the severity of age-related conditions such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and memory loss. It is almost a given that increased stress has negative effects on your attitude, your entire body and your overall life. Furthermore, visit your chiropractor for sleep position recommendations that can greatly improve your overall posture and help decrease neck and back ailments. After all, the average human sleeps one-third of their life!

Don’t forget to “Ask Your Chiropractor” every week where your questions may be published and answered in subsequent articles. Address questions to: Dr Chris Davis, the Spinal Mechanic and lead doctor, at movethebone@gmail.com; or, Dr Michael Harvey, director, at dr.michael_harvey@yahoo.com