With so much information coming at us from every direction, it’s easy to get duped into these modern day health myths. Health myths if followed, can open the door to disease and dysfunction.
Scenarios like the one below and many others prompted this post on 5 Health Myths.
I had a patient come in the other day with a cholesterol of 120. The doctor he had seen before me, was happy to see that the statin medication was doing its job.
1. This (insert ailment) is just part of aging.
2. Eating cereal like Cheerios and Raisin Bran supports healthy cholesterol.
3. High cholesterol is a problem that warrants a statin medication.
4. Tylenol (acetaminophen) is no big deal.
5. Half marathons and other intense fitness challenges are just as good as having a consistent fitness routine and my body will keep showing up for me for years to come.
1. This (insert ailment) is just part of aging.
Back pain, fat gain, low motivation, knee replacement it is just part of aging. This is only part of aging if we lean into retirement and life atrophy promoted by insurances carriers, retirement plans, public health and surgery wards.
Let me work for 45 years, destroy my body in the process and then roll over into my rocking chair at age 63 or 69 and get my social security check each month. I can’t imagine a child or teenager thinking that sounds like the good life.
Aging is about what we have learned, experiences we have gained, people we have been able to impact.
Do not look to the government or insurance as to how to age, look to the vital life-giving people around you. This is why if we take care of our body now by accumulating health, we can expect to live out our golden years with vigor and vitality.
2. Eating cereal like Cheerios and Raisin Bran supports healthy cholesterol.
Time after time, patients come in talking about how they eat a good healthy breakfast cereal because they were told they have high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
These whole grain cereals are all marketing and pretty packaging with no health bite. These cereals are a bastion of blood sugar spikes from ultra processed grains, heavy pesticide residues, genetic modification, rancid oils and artificial vitamins.
If you want to improve your heart health, instead of adding Raisin Bran to your morning routine, incorporate steal cut oats or sprouted oats. Or consider eating eggs, yes eggs (yolks and all), for breakfast to support heart health.
3. High cholesterol is a problem that warrants a statin medication.
Your cholesterol is elevated not because you have a statin medication deficiency but because there is a nutritional deficiency and an inflammatory process that is at work.
- Start working on your nutrition.
- Start building your anti-inflammatory powerhouse that is your skeletal muscle.
- Get a sweating routine going.
- Look at your sleep habits
- Go through a digestive renewal program like what I put together at the following link to improve leaky gut and rebalance your health gut flora.
Download an eating and intermittent fasting plan to support your digestion and reset your microbiome.
Get the Free 30 Day Microbiome Upgrade.
I have had patients who for years had high cholesterol, high triglycerides, and low HDL, through specific work on their gut flora, saw remarkable changes in these levels.
4. Tylenol (acetaminophen) is no big deal.
The other day, I saw a person recommending that their friend get Tylenol suppositories for their toddler’s fever because they were having trouble with the oral route. Over and over people are popping Tylenol like its candy. Not thinking twice about the ramifications in the short or long term.
There are over 56,000 ER visits related to Tylenol each year and over 500 deaths from acute liver failure. Most people are taking Tylenol in a depleted state such as when they have a fever, reducing the body’s most critical antioxidant – glutathione.
When your body is working to overcome an infectious onslaught, it is imperative that we support it through nutrient-dense foods, drinks, herbs, and vitamins rather than short circuit the healing process for temporary symptom relief.
5. Half marathons and other intense fitness challenges are just as good as having a consistent fitness routine.
Unfortunately, if your daily life revolves around sitting in a car, sitting at a desk, sitting on a couch and laying down in bed, you are going to be rudely awakened when 45, 50, 60, or 65 rolls around and you realize your body is breaking down on you.
Without adaptation via consistent controlled stressors, our bodies weaken and their propensity to injury is magnified. I’m all for Spartan races and the like, in fact, we did a Ragnar race a couple years ago and it was loads of fun.
I highly recommend maintaining and building fitness in the interim between these challenges, otherwise the challenge, the race though euphoric for your mind, is a beating for your physical body.
Let’s accumulate health, not health myths, hype, or propaganda! You won’t regret it now or when you are 80!
