WHAT IS ONE THING THAT INCREASES HEALTH RISKS?
It increases health risk more than:
- High cholesterol does for heart attacks
- High blood pressure does for heart failure
- Can predict cancer treatment outcomes
- It is the number one identified factor for people to drop out of weigt loss programs
- It is 100% more of a risk factor for diabetes than prediabetes is
- It is an independent predictor of chronic pain AND
- It is the number one cause of disability in the USA and the WORLD.
What could it be?
- Bad Genes? No
- Socioeconomics? No
- Self-confidence? No
- Bad diet? No
- Lack of exercise? No
It’s DEPRESSION.
In developing my presentation on Irritable Male Syndrome, I learned much about depression, as IMS can be seen as an early sign of male depression.
Overall I knew depression significantly impacted people’s lives but reached so much more than feeling down, sad, or fatigued.
Depression is a multifaceted, extremely wide-reaching healthcare spending and an economy-draining problem with no genuine medical hope for improvement or prevention.
The diagnostic criteria were established with an extreme female bias in the definition and differential diagnoses of the condition and, for decades, were almost exclusively used to diagnose women. Not coincidentally, the diagnosis was made in most cases by a man and over 6,000% more likely to be made by a male doctor than a female.
The medication shows little to no improvements in the short term and significant problems in the long-term use, with fundamental lifestyle factors proving much more effective with no toxic side effects.
Medications under the marketing term S.S.R.I. target the brain for an issue that has ever been proven to be a brain-based problem for a chemical, serotonin, that can’t be measured in a living person. I see problems with this.
I see it as a two-sided issue as it develops:
One side stems from our perception. The other is from the baseline level of our physiology.
How it is approached or has been conventionally in our medical standard of care doesn’t make sense to me for several reasons.
I do not see how it can be explained as a mental issue alone.
Basic brain physiology shows it can’t be an isolated chemical imbalance.
Life stress isn’t a viable explanation since we need daily stress challenges for our body to respond and work properly both in the short and long term.
It also makes no sense that it stems from a lack of any attributes like motivation, willpower, drive, or even life satisfaction.
As long as our healthcare system approaches depression at this level, this problem and the people suffering from it WILL GET WORSE.
Perception comes from our thinking, experience, and emotional resilience. The internal combination of these three things forms our response to our environment and what happens to us, resulting in either a constructive reaction that builds us up or a constructive one that tears us down.
Our baseline physiology is the systemic integration of our primary metabolism, hormonal resistance, toxic load, and movement response.
Depression is the expression of the disconnect between our mind (thinking, emotions, and experience) and our body (physical fitness, hormonal balance, and metabolism) and needs harmony on both sides to see an actual improvement. We call this whole body and mind a combined expression of our life, health, mood, etc.
Neglect either, and both will suffer.
What can I do?
Mind:
- Paced breathing
- Emotional awareness and responsibility for how we feel and react
- Clarity in thinking and understanding what we want and why
- Reinterpreting experience and building new responses
Body:
- Shift from chronic sugar burning to efficient fat burning for cellular energy
- Improved detoxification and cellular recycling through periodic/rotational fasting
- Stress relief cardio, physical activity, exercise, and intensity training in daily combinations
- Proactive adjustments to our physical interface with our environment and tune-ups (Chiropractic = Nervous System, Body Work = Fluid flow, Self Care/Wellness = personal & community connection)
This may sound like a lot, but you are already fulfilling a plan by living your normal life that touches each area. I could participate fully and direct the show!
“If you are not improving your health, you will passively lose it.”
Do not underestimate this one, my friends!
If it is time to get your plan together and needs some direction, leave a comment in our group, Insulin Friendly Fasting Secrets.
We can do better!
Dr. Don
