Adaptation is the process by which a stressed system attempts to regulate itself in response to a new set of factors in order to achieve balance and harmony (often called “homeostasis”). Countries adapt, plants and animals adapt, social organizations (like cultures) adapt and so do we humans.
In fact, health promoting substances called “adaptagens” (which enhance regulation) are used in natural medicine because they help the body increase or decrease whatever is out of balance.
The good news, then, is that we are, individually and collectively, wondrously adaptable. Up to a point. Please prepare yourself and click here to see a graphic and heartbreaking example of what happens when we stretch the adaptive rubber band so far that it snaps. Because that is what we are doing with our bodies by exposing them to hundreds of thousands of toxins never encountered by any living thing prior to the last hundred years including deadly pesticides, radiation at levels unknown in nature, toxic, untested chemicals, new organisms and weird DNA.
How much can an organism, a child, a gene, an organ, a marriage, a brain or a society take before its adaptive abilities are overwhelmed and the stress is greater than the compensation for the stress that the system can manage. The result? Damage to the ability of the organism to function, self protect and self correct. If the stress is great enough to show, we call it by the name of some illness or another: cancer, social decay, infertility, depression, skin eruptions, rising crime rate, looting, suicide, drought, autism, monster storms. If the damage is greater still, the result is death of the society, the child, the mind, the heart, the planet. The disorder and dysfunction (and the diagnosis) depends on the system being stressed but the principle is the same.
What can you do about it? Reduce the load. Reduce the number of stressors that the system has to adapt to and give the adaptive systems help, support and nutrition. That means Read labels!
1. Eat organic food. Yes, it costs more. Think of what your will save on co-pays and hospital bills!
2. Eat non-GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) food. We are building our new website, www.EatSafeEatSmart.info so you can come to the site for healthy alternatives to familiar choices.
3. Avoid trans fats. Use pure, unrefined organic coconut oil or extra virgin organic olive oil) for cooking.
4. Take adequate amounts of high potency, pure vitamins and minerals. Cheap one a day nutrients are not worth much (and that’s what they cost, too, because they do not compare at all to the high quality, high potency nutrients you really need.
5. Use all natural, non-toxic cleaning products for your house, your clothes and yourself.
6. Quit smoking
7. Drink adequate water and avoid carbonated beverages. Fizzy drinks will make your body more acid, setting you up for toxic events.
8. Do a supervised detoxification program with nutrients, sauna (if possible) and herbs so that you can remove the built up toxins from your body. This is not a do it yourself procedure.
9. Do not drink liquid from a plastic bottle which is soft enough to change its shape when you squeeze it. That means that it has phthalates in it. Phthalates act like unopposed estrogen and wreak havoc with the entire body of both born and unborn people.
10. If you identify contaminants or dangers in your home, office, car, etc. please take the action necessary to remover it (or remove yourself if that is the only way to protect yourself).
11. No perfume, no fragrance no matter what. In aother blog I will discuss the importance of NOT using perfumes if you are trying to reduce the toxic load of your body to give it more adaptagenic potential than it has now because of the toxic load you are carrying.
In order to get and stay healthy, there is no doubt in my mind: we need to enhance our ability to adapt by removing the things that keep us from doing well adaptively.
Remember, property and habits are much less important than health and health freedom. You can replace the first, but you can never replace the second.
Yours in irreplaceable health and freedom,
Dr. Laibow
