8-Tracks to Healthy Living

884 million people globally do not have safe water to drink and lack access to clean water. Yet the human body is like an ocean in some ways, as up to 60 percent of the adult body is water, and our blood is 90 percent water streaming through us. Clean water is an essential nutrient at every age, so optimal hydration is a key component for good health. Whereas those dehydrated and water deficit can suffer from fatigue, headaches, mood changes, urinary tract infections, kidney stones, constipation, aging, thermoregulation, and more.[3]

The absence of water is lethal within days, so understanding the importance of water as a nutrient is key, including water from food, and to a very small extent also from oxidation of metabolic water.[15]

Sunlight’s properties in helping the body may have been a matter of speculation 150 years ago, but a 2008 study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives confirms the soundness of this teaching: “The best-known benefit of sunlight is its ability to boost the body’s vitamin D supply; most cases of vitamin D deficiency are due to lack of outdoor sun exposure. At least 1,000 different genes governing virtually every tissue in the body are now thought to be regulated by 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25[OH]D), the active form of the vitamin, including several involved in calcium metabolism and neuromuscular and immune system functioning.”[5]

Breathable air is at times a difficult commodity to find. According to a 2018 study by the American Lung Association, more than four in 10 Americans “live with unhealthy air.”[3] The group stated that this places people “at risk for premature death and other serious health effects such as lung cancer, asthma attacks, cardiovascular damage, and developmental and reproductive harm.”[4] Breathing “pure air” can help avoid these complications.

Proper breathing can bring better health, as evident in patients who have breathing difficulties, where it is estimated more than 60 percent of the people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have anxiety or depressive disorders. Where slow and deep breathing promotes stress reduction, insomnia prevention, emotion control, improved attention, and other physiological factors are influenced positively.[14]

Rest – the weekly observance – is central to health, and with good reason: Societies that ignore the seven-day cycle, as revolutionary France did at the end of the 19th Century,[9] soon learn that overtaxing employees leads to less productivity. In 2017, Inc. magazine offered “12 Scientific Reasons” a day of rest “works” for businesses. Among the findings cited: “The most productive countries are Germany and France–each mandating more than 30 days of vacation. Workers in the U.S., with no law requiring paid time off, are the third most productive (and only about 25% of Americans take their full allotment of vacation time).”[10]

In addition, the CDC found more than a third of American adults were not getting enough sleep on a regular basis. [2] It has been well established in many sleep studies that between 7 to 8 hours per night is best. Those that get enough rest performed better cognitively, had better mood and immune functioning than those who slept less, or more, than this amount.

The benefits of exercise are too many to list in this brief introduction. The advantages of physical exertion can be clearly seen, however, sedentary jobs are more prevalent as well as sedentary lifestyles.

According to scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, “The health benefits of regular exercise and physical activity are hard to ignore. Everyone benefits from exercise, regardless of age, sex or physical ability.”[11]

Trust in Divine Power may not seem like a subject for scientific study, but there’s a growing body of research supporting the contention that having faith is a “true remedy” in times of illness.

“A large volume of research shows that people who are more [religious or spiritual] have better mental health and adapt more quickly to health problems compared to those who are less [religious or spiritual],” writes Dr. Harold G. Koenig of the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry, at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. “These possible benefits to mental health and well-being have physiological consequences that impact physical health, affect the risk of disease, and influence response to treatment.”[13]

Temperance in food and drink, including avoiding alcohol – also called “abstemiousness” – has also been ratified by scientific evidence.

History, not harm, dictates why some drugs are legal and others are not. In 2010 a study, experts ranked 20 legal and illegal drugs on 16 measures of harm to the user and to wider society. This includes health damage, economic costs, and crime. As at various times around the world, coffee has been illegal and cocaine has been widely available. Overall, alcohol was the most harmful drug. It considered and ranked the results by many factors including the harm done to one’s self, to others, and to the community. [1]

A study was published in Britain’s Lancet, one of the world’s oldest medical journals. The conclusion: “Our results show that the safest level of drinking is none.”[8]

Many studies, including the famous “Blue Zones” study, emphasize the advantages of proper nutrition and diet, often described as plant-based.[6]

For example, “Adhering to an anti-inflammatory diet was associated with lower risks of dying from any cause, dying from cardiovascular causes, and dying from cancer in a recent Journal of Internal Medicine study,” a September 2018 news release noted.[7] “Anti-inflammatory foods consist of fruits and vegetables … whole grain bread, breakfast cereal, … olive oil and canola oil, nuts, [and] chocolate,” the news release further stated. (Ellen White would disagree with the study’s inclusion of tea, coffee, low-fat cheese and so-called “moderate” red wine and beer consumption as useful foods, however.)

Dr. Joanna Kaluza, an associate professor at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, in Poland: “Our dose-response analysis showed that even partial adherence to the anti-inflammatory diet may provide a health benefit.”