The Seven Pillars of Health Review

You can ask probably anyone that knows me and they know I like to read books.  But I’m a fiction girl.  With the exception of the Bible of course, which I read this year and still quite proud of that.  So I’m shamed to admit I have never read one health and/or wellness book.

My mom gave me The Seven Pillars of Health by Dr. Don Colbert this week though and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.  Unlike that non-fiction stuff Scott watches on Discovery and A&E, this proved to informative AND I could put it into practice.

And while I’ve already been driving my family batty sharing all the information I’ve learned and obviously since this is my first health book, I’m no expert but, I of course have to let it all out here.  I just can’t believe how much my eyes have been opened.  Now all these things are sort of like “duh” I knew that but I think understanding why and getting a better picture in my head has really helped.

The seven pillars are

1. Water
2. Sleep
3. Food
4. Exercising
5. Detoxification
6. Nutritional Supplements
7. Coping with Stress

The book is broken down into 1 week on each pillar and each day you read a point about it.  There are a few I’d love to share

Water (by far the most interesting pillar).  I would recommend reading this chapter if nothing else

• He gave an analogy (that I connected with quite well) of a plant not getting watered enough.  The first thing that happens is the edge of the leaves turn brown.  In the same way, when our bodies are dehydrated, they take water from less important places like our skin and joints to make sure very important organs like our heart and kidneys are well taken care of.  Things like acne and arthritis can sometimes simply be cured by drinking more water.  Heather chimed in with the quote from someone that said, “it’s bad think you are less nourishing than a desert.”
• Water will slow the aging process and maintain your brain and memory
• Salads/fruits/vegetables all contain a high percentage of water
• All water is NOT created equal.  Tap water AND some bottled water can be bad for you.
• You should drink water out of a glass container, not plastic
• He recommends Penta water
• You should drink half your body weight in ounces
• He says drinking 1-2 cups of coffee is ok

Sleep

• You need 7-9 hours of sleep per night.  When you sleep less than that your body is like a cell phone that doesn’t get charged all the way..it doesn’t last as long.
• People that sleep 9 instead of 7 hours have greater “natural killer cell” activity which destroy viruses, bacteria and cancer cells.
• Depth of sleep is just as important.  He even went a little further to say dreams that occur in deep sleep bring images up from our unconscious soul so we can get meaning from them.  He backs it up with examples from Biblical times of God using dreams to make people aware of things.
• Naps are good

Food

• The book got a little on the scientific side and this was the stuff we already know…more fruits and veggies and less read meat.
• He had a spiel in there on MSG (and other things) in processed food.  I couldn’t believe how many products have that in them.
• I was also disgusted at the knowledge that white bread is first gray and they have to bleach it to make it white.  Yuck.  Only whole wheat bread for me now.
• He spent a lot of time on fats and oils and which were good and bad.  A few things from that I learned where trans fats are bad, vegetable oil is bad and deep-frying is bad.
• An interesting one here…don’t eat the charred part of something off the grill.  It has toxins in it.

Exercise

• We all know exercise is good.  He went through a lot of reasons why and talked about target heart rates and recommended exercises and such.  The one analogy that stood out to me though was the fact that our bodies are made up of 2/3 water. If you think of a cup, puddle or pond that eventually is convered in slime, gunk and breeds disease without being stirred, it’s the same for our bodies.  Moving water thrives and when we exercise our bodies we are refreshing our bodies and clearing them of toxins and giving ourselves strength and energy.

Toxins

• This basically went through what we know as well..toxins come through the air we breath, food and water we digest and even cleaning solutions that come in contact with our skin.
• A few things he recommends…clean your air filter monthly, dispose of toxic chemicals properly, switch to natural cleaners or at least wear gloves, buy indoor plants to clean the air naturally, put dust covers on your pillows and mattresses.
• He also says fasting and sweating can both detox your system.  If you don’t sweat much (like me), consider visiting a sauna regularly.  Sweat naturally detoxes you.  Fasting gives your GI tract a break.
• There is also something called Divine Health Living Food you can take for a day to help detox.

Nutritional Supplements

• If you are under 50, take a whole-food multivitamin, a phytonutrient powder and an omega-3 supplement.  If over 50, also take antioxidents, calcium, Vit D and a sublingual B12, and a digestive enzyme after each meal.
• Sit in the sun without sunblock for ten minutes each day IF you don’t have a history of skin cancer.
• Eat a salad with all the colors of the phytonutrient rainbow each day.
• Be careful your fish oil pills aren’t rancid.  If it smells fishy, it’s bad.

Stress

• Understand what you can and can not control
• Be thankful
• Laugh every day
• Practice breathing exercises
• Forgive others
• Make to-do lists but allow for some not to be completed.

I’ve literally scratched the surface on what he shares in this book.  Like I said, even the first chapter on water is worth the read alone.  There’s just no way you can read all this and still wonder why everyone around us is getting sick and has cancer!  Seriously, if you have all these toxins in your body from sodas and alcohol and food and air and then you are very sedentary and add stress on top of that, well no wonder!! (Clearly not blaming all diseases and cancer on food/water/air)

I know I personally have made changes.  I’ve gotten up every morning this week to exercise, I’ve met my water requirements for a few days now and I’ve done pretty good eating (save the birthday cake yesterday).  And FYI, the almond butter he recommends is NASTY!  I’ll go for natural peanut butter, thankyouverymuch.  Now I just need to add some vitamins, (more) laughter and some sweat (shouldn’t be too hard in 100 degree weather) and I should be good to go.