Disease prevention involves natural remedies
January 15, 2022 – This is the time of year to make resolutions. With the new surge of COVID, many of us fear for our and our family’s health. Even those of us who are vaccinated are not safe. Although we lack a cure, we may want to learn more about prevention.
Last weekend the Vegan Museum and the Seventh Day Adventist Lake Regional Conference(LRC) discussed disease prevention on YouTube. Dr Roger Seheult, a specialist in critical care, pulmonary and sleep medicine listed four natural remedies – sleep, exercise, sunlight and diet. Dr Christina Wells, a specialist in family medicine, added three more – water, temperance and spirituality. The two complemented each other: Seheult’s more specific technical explanations were balanced by Wells’s specific sources of nutrition – elderberry, zinc, selenium and vitamins A and D. Wells, health and wellness director for LRC, replaced Dr Saray Stancic, medical education director for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine(PCRM), who was unable to participate.
“Get seven or more hours of sleep and start before midnight” before your REM(rapid eye movement) sleep expands, Sehualt said.
To improve sleep, Nick Polizzi of the Sacred Science, suggests four changes in your bedroom – the kinds of light, the amount of clutter, the welcoming atmosphere and accumulating dust. He recommends removing devices like cell phones, TVs and computers that emit blue light rays, decreasing the brightness of other lights. Reorganizing furniture and other stuff will yield more space and the illusion of a larger room.
“Crack a window opening so air circulates in your enclosed space,” says Karen Lucas, health and wellness consultant in training.
Polizzi suggests adding pleasant scents and keeping on hand healthy things that improve your mood. Finally, he recommends changing the sheets and cleaning the room regularly.
Seheult, Lucas and Wells suggest moderate exercise to reduce stress. Instead of artificial light they advise us to go outside and enjoy the sunlight daily between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., whatever our time zone, to enjoy heat from the sun’s infrared rays.
“Plant foods improve your immune system” because they provide phytonutrients, Wells said.
Museum founder Kay Stepkin and Nutritionist Deepa joined her, Seheult and Lucas Wells in their support of a plant-based diet for preventing disease. Stepkin cited Chapter 1 of Genesis in the Bible as God instructing Adam and Eve to eat plants for food.
Lucas pointed out how to eat plants: “Chew slowly. Make your meals 60-70 per cent raw.”
Nutritionist Deepa encourages people who make the transition from animal products to go slow: “Start with one meat-free day per week and work up to more as you get used to it.” Eliminate dairy, red and processed meat first. Switch plant ingredients for those with animal products. Learn to swap plant products for meat, dairy and eggs.(See What can I substitute for animal flesh or animal products in recipes? in Articles) Add fiber like canned/frozen/raw vegetables to dishes you already know to make. Try more ethnic cuisines that already have delicious plant-based protein. Eventually stock up on more plant-based ingredients and finally attempt meal plans and prepare new dishes. See Resources for Recipes.
According to Lucas, the recommended eight glasses of water per day should be drunk between, not during, meals to decrease joint pain. Besides the temperance in alcohol and tobacco usage, she suggests expanding it to food and exercise. Both she and Wells advocate trusting in God as the best form of spirituality.
If two doctors, a dietician, a museum founder, a health and wellness consultant and an alternative health researcher all agree that we have the power to prevent disease this year through natural remedies, maybe we need to listen.
Which natural remedies are you willing to try? Which do you already use? Do you have any others to suggest?