Health is our Final Frontier
StockSnap / Pixabay – Health is our Final Frontier

I read an interesting blog the other day. One of the goals for this blog writer was to never get admitted to a hospital. I laughed at first and thought about it for the rest of the day. I agree with him.  Too many things happen to us when we enter a hospital for treatment.

I am a Star Trek fan. ‘Space’, as the Final Frontier for mankind, is in alignment for ‘Health’, as the Final Frontier for each of us. Without great health, we may grow older and not enjoy a single moment of it. Constant pain, inability to do things, having someone change my diaper is not the quality of life I desire when I am touching triple digits in age.

We have to work at staying in excellent health every day of our lives. I’m past retirement age and have never been on prescription medicines – neither has my wife – and, I’m seven days older than her, almost to the hour. I’ve had more than a casual interest in health, fitness, and nutrition,  for over 30 years.

As a Naval Aviator, I was required to have a flight physical every year – for over 30 years. I had to pass the flight physical to continue on flight status. And, I did, without a problem. Of course, I had the usual cold or flu or other temporary maladies, but it wasn’t until very late in my life that I had anything serious, gallbladder removal surgery.

Diet and fitness play a major part in our lives. We control both. We eat what we choose to eat – for better or worse. We exercise (or not) when we want to. I am a summer exercise person. I don’t like cold air, so I don’t do much outside exercising in the winter time. I do a limited maintenance workout in the house, but it’s not the same as running after lunch in the heat of the summer.

Nutrition is a topic very near and dear to me. I am a chemist by training, and I really like to delve into the chemical response and interactions of vitamins, enzymes, supplements, etc. I want to know ‘why’ something works or doesn’t work. Nowadays, I research what happens in our bodies at the cellular level looking for cause and effect relationships – biochemically speaking.

I get a little frustrated when I read articles about testing that was done that ‘proves’ this is not good for you. I researched it a little further and found out that the dosage amounts were way low to make a difference. The testing organization has an agenda and they want to prove or disprove something. That has to be taken into account. I look at the group that was tested. What kind of health were they in at the time of the testing. Could that have influenced the results? I am very critical of results that appear to my mind as strange – and I look into the further.

We have access to so much information. Yet, we tend to believe anything we hear or see. How many times have you read something on Facebook and found out later it was a hoax. I am guilty of passing along an interesting piece of information to later find out that it was in error. We have to guard our future lives on the sources we choose.

If Health is our Final Frontier, how do we enjoy the trip? Continually learn and take appropriate action. Eighty years ago many doctors treated gestational diabetes as a deficiency in chromium. It’s not the way we treat it today.

I spoke on this topic at a Toastmasters meeting and a friend from the audience asked me if it would work for his Type II diabetes. I am not a doctor. I only research and report my findings. I told him to ask his doctor and, if nothing else, go on a test program to see if it did or did not help him. He caught me at another meeting a couple months later and told me that his daily insulin levels were cut in half by taking chromium.

Aging is inevitable. Healthy aging is not. Every day our bodies degrade. We can counter those degradations and cheat many age-related diseases. But, you need to know what do do. And, you need to take action. Enjoy your Final Frontier. The quality of your trip is dependent on your choices and actions.

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