It is undoubtedly you, not your doctor, parents, your grocery store provider, your personal cook or your spouse .
We go to the doctor every year as part of our annual check up just to make sure we check off one duty and to show that we have taken 1 step towards maintaining our health; but is that really enough? How many of us feel 100% healthy even though all our labs come back normal? And vice-versa is also true How many of us feel we are completely ok but the labs come out abnormal. We are lead to believe that lab tests are the only tool available for early detection or prevention of diseases; but we have to start taking health in our own hands. We should be paying attention to the warning signals that the body constantly tries to give us.
Let me share an example; If a person is constantly suffering from headaches, there is a chance that all lab investigations come back normal and the doctor just prescribes a painkiller to subside pain, this painkiller acts by blocking the substance that is responsible for creating pain, it is like removing the wire of your own alarm system because it is making too much noise and disturbing your sleep (It might help you sleep better but the burglars might have taken everything out by the time you wake up). Paying close attention to the signal that body gives you and therefore addressing the root cause will permanently solve the problem —it could be as small as addressing your constipation, turning down heating system; taking precautions while going out in the Sun, changing the diet patterns; addressing digestion; addressing your sleep pattern etc.
The contrary could also be true, you could be completely fine and get the lab work done as a routine health care and find out that you are labelled with a disease due to abnormal labs, you are forced to take medicines so the labs will come back to normal–in reality your labs might come back normal but you could start feeling worse too due to side effects from medicines–understand what is the priority? Health or bringing labs to normal. I am not against getting labs done at all, but I want you to take responsibility in understanding the difference between addressing labs and maintaining your own health.
We also have the tendency of accepting a disease that we have inherited from our ancestors and not have the guilt or not have the commitment to eradicate the disease. I live in California which is an earthquake prone zone, recently I visited a temple where the whole stone structure stands on 40 base isolators to protect it from being damaged due to seismic activity; this made me realize the importance of having a strong base to withstand any conditions we face. It is very good to know your weaknesses before hand so that you can strengthen them and work on them.
I also agree that the food that we get nowadays is not the best quality that was available few decades back–again take ownership and get organic produce wherever possible or grow vegetables in your backyard
Your cook or spouse can make healthy, delicious, fresh meals but will not know your eating or digestion capacity, It is up to you to judge how much you can eat at each meal or if necessary be able to skip a meal when there is no hunger at all.
So, my dear friend take charge of your health in your own hands, it is too precious to be managed by others!!!