Are you willing to remove what is making you sick?

"Before you heal someone,
Ask him if he is willing to give up the things
that are making him sick."

- Hippocrates

There's so many quotes from Hippocrates, the father of medicine, that resonate deeply to those of us in the natural health field.  This one strikes a chord on so many levels with me.  

Professionally, this is what we see everyday in the field of natural medicine.  It`s what every naturopath`s ethos is all about. When we meet somebody struggling with their health and feeling depleted, it's what we are trying to get to the root cause of… what is it that is making this person sick? 

Is it a food intolerance?  Is it a hormonal imbalance? An inability to absorb nutrients efficiently for some reason?   

​Looking again at that quote, it goes deeper than that…

On a global level, the message is loud and clear.  There's too much unexplained illness that just wasn't there in the past in the numbers  that it is today. 

​

Every year, in the UK, we have a fundraising programme called “stand up to Cancer”.  It's a worthwhile cause, but every time there is a commercial break we are faced with an infographic telling us in no uncertain terms that 1 in 2 of us will get cancer.  I can remember only two or three years ago, this number was 1 in 4.  What's going on?

I can't help but get so frustrated at this.  It feels like we are all being brainwashed to just accept this figure.  It's inevitable. Live with it… Except it's not!
Cancer is just one example.  The amount of autoimmune disease is massive across the world.  Not to mention diabetes, heart disease, alzheimers, autism… the list is endless.  

What is going on!?

Our bodies ability to detoxify the amount of toxicity we are faced with on an everyday scale just can't keep up with the demand.   Evolutionary, we just can't keep up.  ​

Our foods are covered in chemicals to enable less insect damage, less weeds and more growth.  The animals we consume are fed antibiotics to enable a faster growth rate, and to deter disease spreading amongst them.  Our water has chemicals added to it that are disruptive to our endocrine systems (our hormones), not to mention the effect of fluoride on our brains.  Our homes are flooded with electromagnetic frequencies, we apply chemical laden products to our skin and our air is polluted. 

It is a fact that a newly born baby has more than 200 chemicals in it`s placenta, before it even takes it`s first breath.  Source: Environmental Working Group analysis of tests of 10 umbilical cord blood samples conducted by AXYS Analytical Services (Sydney, BC) and Flett Research Ltd. (Winnipeg, MB)

Every time I see that statistic on the commercial break - 1 in 2 will get cancer… I always want to take to the streets, make petitions and raise awareness that actually, our governments that are supposed to be protecting us, need to do something about this! 
It feels like that is pretty huge though, and I`m not sure I would be taken seriously, so instead, I thought I'd try to bring the information into your homes that you can protect yourself from the flood of toxicity that envelopes the world at the moment.  
There`s something called the environmental working group. 
It's a really good place to start.  They have a list called - the dirty dozen and clean 15.   The dirty dozen are foods that are laden with chemicals and that if you want to minimise your health risk of toxicity then you should buy organic wherever possible.  The clean 15 are foods that are generally safer to buy as non organic. 
If you could familiarise yourself with this list then you are already protecting your family from a huge amount of toxicity.

There's loads of information about how to live a more toxic free life… from cleaning products to personal body care, to what you eat and drink.  I urge you to familiarise yourself with the process as that statistic isn't going anywhere unless we all do.  

What we are being brainwashed to believe is that we are dependent on the pharmaceutical industry to put right the illnesses that we develop.  But what if we do our best to not get them in the first place?

My mum always taught us as children - “prevention is better than a cure” and she was right.

Your body is amazing.  It isn`t the vulnerable, fragile vessel that we are led to believe.  It is capable of massive improvements and regeneration of its health.  We just need to help it by removing as many obstacles as possible.  

Imagine a Ferrari, with the wrong tyres, faulty brakes, diesel in its engine instead of high performance fuel, a worn out clutch, faulty turbo and power steering that isn't working.  Maybe it won't ever be perfect, but some of those issues can be removed and replaced to get that beauty back on the road again.  Nobody at the garage puts a pill in the fuel tank to rectify all those faults.  They deal with the root causes.

I urge you to look deeper at what's causing your symptoms and if you are under consultant care to keep pressing to find out.

I know that this sounds like a huge overhaul and a mountain to climb, and I understand the enormousness that it feels like it involves.  I understand because I`ve been there when my health was on the floor. I`ve been the one with the bin bag, madly emptying the cupboards and freezer in desperation of anything that I didn't recognise ingredients of.  
I also know from first hand experience how you can turn your health around and feel more alive than you can ever remember feeling.  

So… “Yes, Hippocrates… some of us are willing to remove what is making us sick, thanks for pointing that out”.

Are you?