Making Better Health a Priority

Everything we do, we do for a reason. The same goes for everything we don't do. Our motives rely on our experiences, our knowledge and our ambitions. If someone has lead a life where they have had little exposure to pain, poor health or financial restraint, perhaps they may not be too worried about health problems down the road.


Both my parents passed away of cancer. I remember visiting them both in their dying days ... first my mom, then a few years later my father. All of us have been touched by cancer at one time or another.


I have spent some time battling some lesser problematic health concerns as well. I have had a few crohn's disease related surgeries and have spent hours in severe pain.


I have had close calls with asthma, allergies and car accidents. I have battled addictions, depression and obesity. All of us have our battle scars and struggles with different health issues. So why have I made better health more of a priority in the past few years?


Perhaps it was reaching a saturation point. Throughout the years I'd seen the articles about genetically modified foods, increasing allergies and the increased rates of obesity in the news.


Maybe something clicked within me, telling me it was time to take care of myself. There are no shortage of large corporations selling things to us with little or no regard for our long term health and well being. They are more than willing to keep selling us all the junk we're used to buying ... it's money in their pockets. Maybe something finally clicked in me telling me that the only way things might change for the better is if I made them ... if I took responsibility for my health.


Trust is a funny thing with North American lifestyles and health. Products are often innocent until proven guilty, but the onus should really be on the product to prove it's safety before being sold to consumers. Yet, we continue doing what we've always been doing - buying and eating our genetically modified, sugar laden foods; polluting and wasting as if it didn't matter at all.


Years from now we will look back on this and shake our heads. We will remember the large companies taking advantage of a trusting public, all in the name of profit. We will see the foolishness of trusting our governments to protect us. We will see that advertising and greed had brainwashed and poisoned us.


I try to take care of my health for myself and for those I love. I want to do everything I can to increase my chances of living longer and healthier. I want the best for the people who care for me, and would like to be there for them when they need me down the road.


Sometimes I wonder why others don't seem to care as much about health issues. Is it because they don't believe that organics are healthier? Perhaps it's a matter of information overload, where people have just shut down due to being overwhelmed by the many sources of articles, ads and other media about health.


Maybe it's low self esteem ... not feeling that they are worthy of such dedication. Maybe it's just easier to keep doing what they've been doing.


Could it be that they haven't seen the reports of how non organic foods are less nutritious than organic varieties? 


If we keep doing what we've been doing, we'll keep getting what we're getting.


In a world of greed, pesticides, herbicides, asthma, global warming, carcinogens and a host of other problems, I believe it's time to try and do something.  The world could get worse if we let it, or we can take charge and make an effort to turn things around.


What could be more important than your health? 


What kind of future do you want
and what are you doing to make it happen?


~ Pete Szekely