Preventive Self-Care Skills
Assess where you’re doing well, where you need improvement, and where you need a U-turn.
Practicing preventive self-care skills as a daily lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic degenerative conditions in the age of chronic illnesses. If we all do it together, it’s a game changer. Start with an emotionally honest assessment in these 12 key areas.
OXYGENATE
Oxygen is life. For healthy lungs, heart, brain, blood and gut, we need to constantly suck in fresh air and breathe it down to our microbiome, even when we’re asleep. Aerobic microbes living in us need oxygen to thrive; anaerobic microbes that live in hypoxic environments without oxygen make us sick. Chronic hypoxia and acidosis feed illnesses including cancer, whereas oxygenation turns us alkaline and feeds healthy cell metabolism for energy. Take a breath, breathe more deeply, walk in nature, practice breath work, be a steward of clean air. Learn about oxygen therapies like ozone therapy (O3), hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO2) and hyperoxygenation therapy (H2O2).
HYDRATE
Chronic dehydration increases the risk of every chronic illness. It's bad for brain, stomach, gut, heart, kidneys and even our teeth and gums. To hydrate, drink more clean water and skip the plastic and sugar drinks. Filter kitchen tap, showers and bath of toxic contaminants. Source enough mineral electrolytes in the right ratios to transport water into cells. We need twice as much potassium as sodium and more magnesium than calcium. Most Americans have the reverse, eating too much salt and not enough magnesium and then walking around dehydrated while drinking all the time. Read labels to avoid food and drink products with sodium and sugar added. Source the cleanest water you can find and conserve.
EAT SMART
Take control of your mouth, food, kitchen and health. Your best medicine is a wide variety of organic whole foods sourced from farmers you trust. Choose fresh seasonal nutrient-dense, bioavailable and nutritious whole foods over nutrient-depleted processed ‘phoods’ loaded with salt and sugar and laden with pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and additives. Eat enough good essential fats and enough electrolyte minerals and trace elements. Eat 10 different foods per meal. Be strategic with key vitamin and mineral supplements if needed, and say goodbye to inflammatory foods forever—refined seed oils, sugar, flour, salt and pasteurized dairy. Consider a vegan, pescatarian or ketogenic diet based on your personal needs. Eat in a calm resting state and chew your food well.
MOUTHBODY CARE
Think mouthbody connection. Avoid drinks and foods with sugar. Avoid hot and cold. Keep your mouth moist by sipping water throughout the day. Choose an oral-systemic, biological dentist for holistic treatments that are preventive to free your mouth of tooth decay, gum disease, mercury fillings, root canals and toxic invasive dentistry. Floss and brush with antimicrobial neem or xylitol toothpaste (skip the fluoride). But more important, eat a healthy breakfast & lunch sitting in the sun to stimulate Vitamin D metabolism. Teeth are bones and need calcium and magnesium, but they also need Vitamins D & K to move calcium from your blood into your teeth.
GUTBRAIN HEALTH
The gut and brain are connected via the Vagus nervous system and the messenger hormones and neurotransmitters by which the gut and brain communicate. An unhealthy gut can cause inflammation, tics, compulsions, anxieties and depression. Food absorption through our gut is our main source of essential nutrients to sustain life. Nurture healthy microbes in your gut with prebiotics, probiotics, adequate essential fats and proteins, and plenty of raw plant foods. A healthy gut mucosa and gut microbiome are the foundation for mental, emotional and physical health.
BODYMIND DETOX
Manage your own waste, stress and toxic emotions by fasting regularly to empty, cleanse and restore intestines, colon, liver, kidneys and brain of toxic waste and negative thoughts. Detoxifying these organs takes stress off your heart and brain, elevates your mood with feel-good hormones, strengthens immunity, and helps regulate healthy cholesterol and blood sugar. It also restores a healthy microbiome for better gutbrain health. Clean up your waste to transform fear, anxiety, depression, anger and OCD into faith, calm, happiness, acceptance and joy. We have two vagal tones we can live in, stress or rest, and one of them feels better.
HORMONE BALANCE
Keep your hair on your head, your feet warm at night, your metabolism burning lean and get a good night’s sleep by supporting natural hormone balance. Pineal, pituitary, thyroid, thymus, pancreatic, adrenal and gonad glands all communicate with your body via messenger hormones to sustain physical, mental and emotional health. Protect what matters: endocrine glands need essential good fats and minerals, and they are compromised by herbicides, pesticides, plastics, petrochemicals, EMF and radioactive isotopes. If you want more feel-good hormones in your life (serotonin, dopamine, prolactin, oxytocin and endorphins) and less stress (cortisol), think natural hormone health.
NATURAL IMMUNITY
A healthy immune system is your best defense against colds, flu and chronic inflammatory conditions like Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, allergies, asthma, diabetes and arthritis. Chronic inflammation is a sign of an immune system under stress. At the end of the day, no amount of antibiotics, vaccines or steroids can make up for a compromised immune system. We all need the best natural and adaptive immunity we can nurture. Get enough sunshine Vitamin D, Vitamin C, zinc, magnesium and healthy fats like oleic acid and polyphenols like oleocanthal in virgin cold-pressed olive oil to help yourself be well, resist infection and regulate inflammation. Nutritional ketosis can help your immune system adapt under stress.
UNSTRESS
Think “Om Shanti Shanti” is for new age gurus? Think again! Chronic stress spikes your cortisol levels, increases inflammation, depletes your adrenal glands, acidifies your gut mucosa, weakens your immune response, and stresses your stomach, kidneys and heart. Instead of stress about life’s challenges, take a deep breath. Slow down. Take a nap. Sleep an hour longer. Meditation is a good way to let go of being motivated by stress or tolerating stress or feeling stressed. So is decalcifying your pineal gland to better regulate melatonin. At the end of the day, get a good night's sleep to dream visions of a future worth living.
REDUCE TOXIC EXPOSURE
It’s inevitable. We are all exposed and vulnerable because we are our environment. Pesticides, herbicides, petrochemicals, PCBs, plastics, heavy metals like mercury and uranium were never as safe as we pretended. Now, all of us have a personal and collective responsibility to clean up our local and planetary ecosystem to reduce toxicity in order to prevent chronic conditions such as mental illness, autism, cancer, arthritis, Parkinson’s and dementia. Be a conscious consumer. Your money matters. Read the labels. Read between the lines. Read the fine print. Read your rights. Then make informed choices that matter.
MOVE YOUR BODYMIND
We evolved to move. It’s why we have a nervous system. Everybody is a body, some body, your body. And more than that, a bodymind. Embodied consciousness moves. Moving is how you respond within a moving changing world. How you feel, sense and adapt. It’s also how you sustain your health—because our lymphatic system depends on movement to excrete waste and circulate oxygen, hormones, immune factors and nutrients. Feel stuck? Move until you sweat. Not sure where you’re going or what you’re capable of? Find out by getting out of your chair and moving. When you synchronize your body, mind and emotions in daily movement—what you feel, say and do come into healthy manifestation.
SEX, FERTILITY, CHILDBIRTH
From birth through puberty to falling in love to sex, your relationships define you. They are the ultimate test of self-care—because to care for others you need to take care of yourself first. Nurture healthy relationships as part of your emotional wellbeing. Reach out and touch someone. Touch stimulates all the feel-good hormones (dopamine, serotonin, prolactin, oxytocin, endorphins) you need to open your heart to happiness, empathy and social connection. Nurture intimacy, healthy gonads, fertility, and healthy pregnancy and childbirth.