“Stronger People Are Harder to Kill and Generally More Useful,” proves a wise deduction of Mark Rippetoe. Despite today’s crises, we are still blessed with choice. This here and now, surreally 2022, is actually the present and it’s “game time.” Surrounded by battle, so double-down to win the war! All viruses, diseases and horrid people thrive in acidic, inflamed, and dehydrated environments. They also feed on sugar! Your “game” is: (1) don’t be the sitting (weak) duck; and (2) eat. hydrate. balance. repeat.
We can respond rationally with concerted action or react inadvertently (not often in our best interest.) Non-action is a choice, too. The fight- or-flight dilemmas we face are real, as is the public’s subsequently cascading fear. The contagion breeding may be what herds us all off a cliff. Will we be our own demise, not a virus, a polarizing election, or a societal divide regarding civil rights, alone?
The COVID-19 pandemic is a global, contemporary, and life-threatening catastrophe, for certain. If we choose excited reactions or non-action, we may as well forfeit. Worse still, any expectation and reliance on a deliverable cure for all our woes only secures imminent chaos. Fact: life’s constant impermanence, our incessant attachments to getting or keeping what we want, and our aversion and discomfort to change are conditioned. Human, but not progressive.
By example, we share a sincere hope for an effective and rapid-to-market COVID-19 vaccine. Personally, I won’t rely alone (not even close) on the promise of fast-tracked, inoculated immunity. I trust the economics more. Any resource in severe scarcity facing overwhelming demand is a hot commodity in a hot market. And, as per usual, that commodity is already predominately pre-sold! Pragmatically, if product sales consistently outpace production, and demand is never ceasing, we are all in serious trouble. If that’s our only plan, we chose debilitating delusion as being merely victors or victims of arbitrary circumstances.
Physically, we can proactively build muscular strength to armor up against airborne viruses and metabolic bodily disease. We can also take our diet and lifestyles more seriously and fast. Mentally, advocate for yourself and those needing advocacy. Fight the need for a predictable, slow-and-steady, safe life. By contrast, we can revel in the evolution. Exhaust your physical and mental capacities. They will replenish amply if we continue to employ all actionable and defensive resources.
Get Strong. Strength is one of the most precious resources we have and need to defend fiercely. If you are not building and maintaining, you are most certainly losing. Skeletal muscle is a highly vascularized tissue that can secrete proteins called myokines when contracted. Myokines fight viruses. Evidenced widely, diseases ranging from genetic neuromuscular disorders to cancers can be evaded, reversed, or at best, better managed.
Eat. The body requires 90+ essential nutrients. The standard American diet typically provides only 15 to 20 of those ninety. Your diet is your responsibility, the job being to ensure supple- mending nutritional deficiencies. Simpler said than done. Make your macronutrients work for you! The right, “good” fats are required for nutrient absorption. That long-demonized fat could be your best friend, and conversely, the preservative-laden, food products (even the “healthy”) are your worst enemy. Could something so simple, albeit hard to achieve in today’s fast-paced world, help the body reject both contagious and chronic illness? Yes!
Hydrate. Our body should be 70% to 75% water, 5% of which we typically lose daily. Without adequate water transporting nutrition and oxygen to our cells, flushing out waste and toxic load.
Balance. The balance between antioxidants and oxidants determines our body’s state of oxidative stress, which also causes inflammation. Water, too! With pH levels ranging from 2.5 to
9.5, we can protect ourselves from most any threat with such a two-pronged approach. A body too acidic or too alkaline is out of desired homeostasis. An acidic body loses its ability to function properly. Alkaline minerals are the buffer and must be replenished daily. High pH water (like 9.5) will help the body remain in better-balanced pH (like 7.2). On the flip side, hypochlorous acid is water with a 2.5 pH – ten times the disinfecting power of Clorox.
