Over the past 8 weeks we have been taking a look at the risk factors of cardiovascular disease based on a Fox News article1 and according to the American Heart Association. We have been taking each factor and drilling down to the root cause of each of them, and how they can be addressed from a natural wholistic perspective to restore the body back to good health rather than just recognizing the behaviors, factors, signs and symptoms, and then just managing the disease. To see the first of the eight blogs, you can start by going to “A Holistic Approach to Heart Disease”.
American Heart Association’s “Life’s Essential 8”
Let’s now wrap up by diving into the 9th and last blog in this series by making a comparison to what the American Heart Association calls the “Life’s Essential 8” and compare it to a slightly different approach and thought process from a holistic health perspective.
Life’s Essential 8 are the key measures for improving and maintaining cardiovascular health, as defined by the American Heart Association. Better cardiovascular health helps lower the risk for heart disease, stroke and other major health problems.
Life’s Essential 8 consists of the following eight lifestyle behaviors, broken down by 4 health behaviors, and 4 health factors, for optimal heart health, according to the AHA:
4 Health Behaviors:
- Following a healthy sleep schedule
- Not smoking
- Getting regular physical activity
- Adhering to a healthy diet
4 Health Factors:
- Maintaining a healthy body weight
- Maintaining healthy blood glucose levels
- Maintaining healthy cholesterol levels
- Maintaining healthy blood pressure
The Wholistic Health Pie
I address each of these with the exception of smoking in the first 8 blogs. I would now like to share with you a little different perspective, a wholistic health perspective. First, wholistic health does 2 things:
- It gets to the root cause of the problem
- It restores the body back to good health using natural tools and approaches
This is probably the most significant difference between conventional medicine and wholistic health – conventional medicine manages disease, and wholistic health looks for the root cause and then restores the body back to good health using natural approaches.
Just as the American Heart Association has their breakdown for heart health, I like to break wholistic health down in a simple format. First, we start with the big picture of wholistic health by breaking it down into four main
- Mental
- Emotional
- Physical
- Spiritual
By mental health we mean things like time management, budget, career, goal-setting, our purpose in life – do we even know why we get out of bed in the morning?
Emotional health can include areas of our lives like family and relationships as well as emotional stability.
Spiritual health is acknowledging that the Power that made the body can heal the body – our almighty God. Do we surrender our efforts to someone greater than ourselves, as in the person of Jesus Christ, the ultimate Healer? Are we walking in the fruits of the spirit like peace, love, joy, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control?
And then there is the physical health. I break this down even further into 5 pieces.
5 Foundational Pieces of Physical Health
- Rest
- Water
- Exercise
- Good Nutrition
- Good Nerve Supply
You will notice that there are some overlaps with Wholistic Health and the AHA’s 8 Essentials. They are:
| Wholistic Health | 8 Essentials |
| Rest | Sleep |
| Exercise | Physical Activity |
| Good Nutrition | Healthy Diet |
Then there are some areas that the AHA doesn’t address like water and good nerve supply. There is a school of thought that believes dehydration is the root cause of all chronic degenerative diseases. While I don’t think there is only one solution or cause to everything, I do believe that water is essential to good health, including our cardiovascular health.
Let’s talk for a minute about good nerve supply.
Good Nerve Supply, What is It?
This is a component of our health that gets way over-looked and majorly misunderstood. When bones in our spine get misaligned they put pressure on the spinal nerves causing a lowered state of health for us. This is called a subluxation.
The nerves branching off of our spinal cord go to every cell, tissue, organ, and system of the body, including our cardiovascular system. Have you ever had an EKG, or know someone that has? All of those signals that are being measured and show up on a graph are created by electrical nerve impulses. The nerves in our body can be thought of as the information highway of our bodies.
What is a Subluxation?
A subluxation is a slight misalignment of the spinal vertebra, putting pressure on the spinal nerves causing a lowered state of health. The vertebra just need to move a millimeter of a shift, stay stuck and locked in that position, putting pressure on the spinal nerves, to cause nerve interference. Just the weight of a dime is enough pressure to decrease the nerve impulses going out to the body by 40 percent. Think about that!
All kinds of things can cause subluxations:
- Poor posture
- Poor sleeping habits
- Automobile accidents
- Sports injuries
- Home & work injuries
- Slips and falls
- Repetitive work motions
- Even the birthing process – for both mom and the baby can cause subluxations
A chiropractic physician is the only healthcare practitioner who is trained to locate and correct these subluxations. So, you see, chiropractic isn’t just about back and neck pain, it’s about removing nerve interference at the spinal level so the body can function optimally again. Everyone should have a chiropractor on their healthcare team.
The 4 Health Factors in the 8 Essentials are viewed as symptoms in the wholistic health world:
Maintaining a healthy body weight, blood glucose levels, cholesterol levels and blood pressure. We addressed each of these in earlier blogs.
In Summary
We have been reviewing cardiovascular disease through both the conventional medicine lens as well as the holistic health approach. We used an article written by Fox News where they shared a study from the American Heart Association. The objective was to show you the holistic health approach so that you can restore or prevent cardiovascular disease using holistic and natural tools.
The good news is, if you have been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, or any of the drivers that lead to it, you do not have to be plagued with any of it these rest of your life. Things like obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. Your health truly is in your control – but you have to make the commitment to do something about it. You have to be willing to put in the hard work – it’s easy to pop a pill, it takes a commitment and work on your part to restore your body back to better health. I highly encourage you to go back and look at each of these blog posts again. Start taking the action steps that have been recommended here. Be empowered and take charge of your health – today – it is so well worth! After all, you are valuable and you matter!
1). “A Holistic Approach to Heart Disease”
2) “Cardiovascular Disease – Our Reliance on Packaged and Processed Foods”
3) “A Holistic Approach to Exercise and Cardiovascular Disease”
4) “A Holistic Connection Between Obesity, Lack of Sleep and Cardiovascular Disease”
5) “Impacts of our Standard of Living, and a Hectic Work Life on our Cardiovascular Health”
6)“Diabetes – the Holistic Connection to Cardiovascular Disease”
7) “High Blood Pressure – a Primary Driver for Cardiovascular Disease”
8) ““The Holistic Perspective of Cholesterol and Cardiovascular Disease”
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Looking for a great beach read this summer? How about digging your toes in the sand, or swinging in the hammock with a copy of “Are You Being Deceived About Truth Wellness?”
(1)To reference the Fox News article go here