Why do we always fight our bodies? :: Healthier Me Blog at Lincolnshire Nutrition

Why do we always fight our bodies?

Posted on 10th August 2011 | There are 0 comments. Why not be the first?

If you see any adverts for medicines in magazines or on the television, or listen to people talk about cancer, you'll realise that they always talk in terms of violence "the fight against hayfever" or "the battle against cancer". Now don't get me wrong, these things aren't pleasant but do we always have to fight? What if ill-health or dis-ease (as in the the opposite of ease, or health) is a function of our body trying to do the best it can with what it's got? What if we "suffer" hayfever because actually we're chronically dehydrated and our body produces more histamine to try and keep hold of the water it does have, for example? What if we drank more water and our hayfever symptoms improved?

Our bodies can be in one of two modes, either stress or relaxation, but it has to be one or the other. This harks back to the day of the dinosaurs when we had to fight to survive and protect ourselves. It's really easy to turn our stress response on but much harder to turn it off. When we're in relaxation mode we can digest our food, breathe deeply oxygenating all our cells and allow our body to repair. However, when we're in stressed mode, we are on 'high alert' looking out for danger and are ready to fight or flee at a moment's notice. Our digestive system switches off, as do our repair mechanisms, and we breathe in a much more shallow way. Hormones are released into our body that suppress our immune system, after all, if you are trying to run from a big scary thing, you need all your energy for that, rather than keeping allergens under control.

Back in the age of the dinosaurs, once the danger had passed, the stress response turned off quickly but today, we have traffic jams, financial worries and many other things that keep our stress levels high. Combine that with the thought of having to fight everything and suddenly, our bodies have shifted into a different mode altogether. This is one where we are more prone to heart attacks, obesity, coughs, colds, flu, cancer, asthma, arthritis, depression and much much more...

So next time you get ill just appreciate that you don't have to fight your body, just work with it. You may be surprised at how much more positive you feel!