Half Full Health

Since we were children we've been forewarned by teachers, doctors, family members, and society, what negative effects, doing negative things can have on our bodies. 

Smoking causes lung disease. 

Sugar causes diabetes (not according to the widely controversial "What the Health" documentary).

The Sun's rays cause cancer. 

Lack of sleep causes your immune system to weaken and cognition to slow.

The vast amount of effort spent in medicine has been spent on what makes us sick. 

In fact, we've spent so much time on this as a scientific community that we've been able to physically quantify the effects of negativity in the form of stress. 

Stress actually unravels the protective casing on the end of our chromosomes, called Telomeres, which causes premature cellular aging, and damages our DNA. 

http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/10/chronic-stress.aspx

Stress and negativity in our mentality results in physical changes to our health. It can change how we metabolize fat and contribute to illness.  

But what makes us healthy? 

We assume that if we avoid the unhealthy, our bodies will therefore be at the base state: healthy. 

But what if we're missing something? What if the base state isn't the healthiest we can be? I'm convinced there's another level. I think of it as a number line. Smoking and drinking frequently puts you at -10 (for the sake of this). Not smoking and drinking puts you at a 0 (base state). But what if we can get to +10? How do we get there? Can we physically quantify the effects of positivity in our mentality and lives on our health? I say yes. 

As a person who lives with a chronic autoimmune disease, I've searched far and wide for solutions to ease symptoms and even cure disease that doesn't involve toxic, side-effect-ridden prescription medication. What I've discovered along the way is the physical and biological manifestation of positivity in our lives that can be observed in our health. With my disease, lets say I'm at a -100 as base state. Through changes in diet, exercise, mentality, relationships, and alternative healing methods (in conjunction with medication), I've discovered I can bring myself to almost 0. So this implies that there are ways of improving your "health score" other than avoiding the things that dropped it in the first place. 

In other words, if you're overweight, you probably got there because of lack of diet and exercise. So to fix it, you improve your diet and exercise more. This the original dogma.

But what I am saying is two-fold; 1) that if you're at 0 and are not overweight, you can still utilize diet and exercise to achieve a positive health score above 0. 

And 2) if your circumstances involve disease or illness not caused by engaging in negative practices, you can indeed improve your situation by engaging in positive practices. 

It's time that we as a whole, switched our view to that of a "glass is half full". Let's focus on trying to quantify the effects of positivity on sick and healthy individuals. What can a healthy relationship due to someone with depression? What can exercise due to a person struggling with Alzheimers? What can meditation and positive thinking due to a person with cancer? And what can all of the above due to a person suffering from nothing, whom we assume to be "healthy"? This is not to say prescription medication has no place in health. In fact, I wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for copious amounts of pharmaceutical drugs they've saved my life. I owe so much to the doctors and scientists that developed those drugs. But the more and more I think, I figure out that I owe just as much to having supportive parents, a healthy diet, a propensity for exercising, and many relationships in my life that have made me a more positive, introspective, and self aware individual. These have all contributed to raising that -100 to whatever it is today. 

I know that given the right research, the right education, and the widespread acceptance of this doctrine, that we can bring the general public from a base state of 0 to a base state of +100. It's time we started focusing on what makes us healthy. And time we saw everyone as in need of improvement, not just those with a classified illness. We've already started down the path of preventative medicine to stop illness before it arrives, biologic medications to block a disease rather than treat symptoms, and gene therapy to modify our code and correct mistakes. But we can go even further. For all those millions of people who don't have outstanding genetic mistakes and predispositions to illness, who simply live at "base state" all their lives, drinking twice a week, and running it off or eating healthy twice a week to make minor corrections, they can be altered by this new doctrine of health. 

Through being present in their own lives, seeking people and activities out that improve their mental state, running more than they drink, and developing a lifestyle that promotes positivity in their lives, I'm truly convinced they can achieve a positive result above base state, that may help them avoid many of the basic aging ailments developed later in life. Let's quantify positivity. 

A great step in the right direction  https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/healthy_aging/healthy_mind/the-power-of-positive-thinking