Wellness Paradigm

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The Wellness Paradigm addresses the body as an innately intelligent, self-governing and self-regulating being.  When that being is exposed to the appropriate environment it will express optimal health.  The Wellness Model endorses a pro-active, deliberate approach to living that encourages lifestyle behavioral patterns that ensure the provision of all elements considered essential for optimal cell function, while simultaneously avoiding those elements known to be inherently toxic to cell function.  The objective is to observe, support and encourage nature – not suppress, manipulate or interfere with it.

The Wellness Paradigm recognizes that sickness is not the opposite of health – but rather the absence of health.  Just as darkness is the absence of light – not its opposite.  The only way to brighten a room is to add light, not reduce darkness.  Likewise, the only way to get well is to increase health, not fixate on reducing sickness.

The objective of the Bonfire Health Program is to empower individuals with the knowledge of a genetically congruent lifestyle (“what to do”) and equip them with the lifestyle strategies proven to get the best results (the “how to do”).  Our purpose is to create Well People.

Struggle and Strength – Using Adversity to Motivate Personal Growth

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Struggle is everywhere.  It presents itself to us daily, in many different forms, and each time, we have a choice of how to approach it.  Everywhere we look, someone or something is facing and overcoming adversity:

• It has been said that the initial struggle a baby bird meets with to emerge from its egg is necessary for its survival.  Chicks that overcome the struggle of hatching are generally strong enough to sustain life outside the egg.

• Increased muscle growth and density is a result of the body’s natural repair response to the tearing of tissue.  Dr. Michael Roizen of the Cleveland Clinic explains that, done correctly, resistance exercise and the struggle in the last few repetitions before exhaustion optimize muscles and sends them “the message to build themselves up in preparation for the next battle.”

• A mother must labor through the birthing process so that she and her baby can enjoy life together.

• Those who have suffered the loss of loved ones know that the grieving process is one of the toughest struggles of all.  Yet, most also know that there must be an appropriate duration and eventual end of the grief if life is to move forward in honor of those lost.

Erik Weihenmayer is familiar with struggle.  As a youth, he lost his eyesight to a degenerative eye disease.  In the advanced stages of the degeneration, Erik dealt with frustration and anger associated with gradually losing his ability to see and engage in activities he had been always been well-equipped to enjoy.  Yet after being struck completely blind, Erik faced his adversity and determined to turn it into his strength.  He has achieved what relatively few have:  Erik has successfully climbed the Seven Summits – the highest peaks on each of the seven continents…and he did it completely blind.

Erik’s struggle and his determination not to yield to it produced strength of character that many admire and greatly respect.  This strength he now shares with others, seeing and non-seeing, all over the world, inspiring them to scale their own summits and giving them hope that they might see possibility in the impossible.

The same opportunity to make a difference for ourselves and for those around us exists for us every day.  We may not be losing our sight or climbing an icy peak, but none of us lives without challenge, adversity, and struggle.  They are integral components of life and growth; we are who we are today because we have made it through all the struggles of our yesterdays.

In the ongoing pursuit of the lives we want, let’s be conscious of our struggles, give them the attention they require, embrace them as opportunities to grow, and power through them with the expectation that we will emerge stronger, better adapted, and wiser on the other side.

Will we be the ones who choose to fight through pain and exhaustion to hatch to strong, healthy lives, or will we be those who give up and never grow beyond the bounds of a thin shell?  The decision is ours and ours alone.

Motivational Triad

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We have inherited a genome that has been shaped by the hammer and anvil of environmental pressures over time to produce two primary drives:

  • Survival
  • Reproduction

These drives are supported, even coerced by our emotions and feelings that are dictated by a hard-wired “GPS” – genetic positioning system described by Lisle and Goldhamer as the Motivational Triad.

In short, we are programmed to:

  • Seek pleasure,
  • Avoid pain,
  • And do it all with the greatest economy of energy.

Although this innate tendency served us well when food was hard to come by and life-threatening dangers lurked around every corner of the cave, it can lead to our downfall in the secure, convenient and abundant world we find ourselves in today.  Our biggest challenges of today stem from the mismatch between our genetic programming for survival in famine and our modern sedentary lives of excess.

Compounding this dynamic is the awareness of this Motivational Triad by the modern marketplace and their relentless exploitation of it.  The world is designed to service your wants, encourage your comfort, and promote your excess.  On the front end this sounds like a life of comfort and ease, but unfortunately, the consequences are broad and devastating.  The world is not designed to promote optimal health, just immediate satisfaction.

Because our ancient hard-wiring can lead to our downfall in a modern world, we must be mindful and deliberate in our approach to better health.  We must clarify that our objective is ultimately true health and vitality, and not simply symptom treatment.  We must discriminate and follow only the specific evidence-based strategies that research has shown to be aligned with our genetic make-up.  Most importantly, we must reinforce these genetically congruent behaviors by leveraging proven, supportive influence techniques that are nothing short of social jujitsu.  This is the essence of the Bonfire Health Program.  This is the solution.

The Power of Forgiveness on Your Health

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Common to all religions and psychology methodologies, forgiveness is central to managing stress, developing lasting primary and secondary relationships, and “growing” emotionally and maturing as an adult.

Anything that increases or exacerbates mental or emotional stress is a threat to our health; a lack of forgiveness is a primary stress-inducer.  However, because it’s somewhat abstract and almost always needs to be a learned behavior, forgiveness is not something everyone embraces or commonly practices.

There are numerous books and articles on forgiveness.

It’s hard to forget, but forgiveness is something you do for yourself.                           – Azim Khamisa

Forgiveness and Stress:  Holding onto a hurt or remaining angry sets the stress response in motion, which, if left uncorrected, can prove to be unhealthy.

The following is from www.forgivenessandhealth.com:

Bearing a grudge and refusing to forgive can cause chronic stress to the body, as well as the mind.  Lack of forgiveness can create an avalanche of stress hormones.

  • It increases production of cortisol and epinephrine, which leads to changes in heart rate and blood pressure.
  • It raises levels of catecholamine and CD8, which suppresses the immune system, thus increasing the risk of viral infection.
  • It leads to the release of histamines, which can trigger severe bronchoconstriction in people with asthma.

Chronic stress also…

  • Alters insulin levels.
  • Alters the acid concentration in the stomach.
  • Causes plaque buildup in the arteries.
  • Causes or intensifies aches and pains.
  • Raises anxiety levels.
  • Causes depression.
  • Interferes with intimate and social relationships.
  • Affects sleep and appetite.
  • Affects job performance.

The Nervous System: Fight or Flight

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Ready, Signal, Fire:  Nerve Supply
Every activity that your body performs is based on the activity of your nerve system.  Whether it’s the rhythmic contractions of your heart and digestive systems, or the rhythm of your golf swing, the activity of your nerve system determines how your body functions.  Your nerve system integrates the activity of every cell, tissue and organ system in your body.

The language of the nerve system is the signals that are sent across nerve fibers:  the nerve impulse.  In many ways, nerves act as bundles of wires that carry signals in order to transmit information.  As each one of the nerve fibers in the bundle sends an impulse, or fires, a signal is transmitted so that your body is always acting in harmony.  As nerve impulses reach their destination, the signals are like on/off switches that regulate and integrate every activity of your body.

The firing of nerve impulses strengthens and develops the pathways along which the impulses travel.  In other words, repeating a phone number, or the motion of a free throw, strengthens the nerve pathway so that it is more powerful in the future.  In this manner, nerve fibers create new pathways and reinforce existing ones to create the ability to learn, move, feel and think.

Nerve Supply to Your Brain is Critical
Millions of bits of information are gathered from every part of your body that then travel through the spinal cord to your brain.  This input of nerve supply to your brain is critical for your brain to function.  So much so that the uppermost sensory input to the brain, the fifth cranial nerve, is the dividing line for brain activity.  If an injury above this point were to prevent sensory information from reaching the brain, it shuts down.  Were the same injury to the brain to occur below this point, the brain remains active.

In other words, although we know that the brain is a supercomputer that runs the body, it is just as true that the nerve supply from the body is what runs the brain.  Your brain runs your body, but your body fuels your brain.  And according to Dr. John Medina, director of the Brain Center at Seattle Pacific University, the most important of this fuel is movement.  Movement, he says in his 2008 book Brain Rules, “acts directly on the molecular machinery of the brain itself.  It increases neurons’ creation, survival, and resistance to damage and stress.”

Movement, Nerve System and Your Sixth Sense: Proprioception
Your sixth sense is an essential function of your nervous system called proprioception.  It is how you know where to place your feet when you walk, how a batter is able to swing a bat into the path of an incoming ball, and how you can touch both of your fingers together behind your head without looking.  Proprioception is your body’s ability to be aware of where it is in space.

Amazingly, the vast majority of the information traveling across your nerve system is below the surface.  Furman and Gallo, in their textbook The Neurophysics of Human Behavior, report that throughout the nerve system, there are trillions of bits of information flowing through your nerves.  Of these, we are consciously aware of around fifty at any one period in time.  The constant evaluation of movement information through the proprioceptive part of your nerve system is similarly behind the scenes.  It has a powerful influence on your health, however.

The authors of this program, wellness chiropractors, have seen firsthand how proper function of the nerve system and proprioception is an essential element for health through working with patients, as has been seen by chiropractors for over 100 years.  Roger Sperry, PhD, received the 1981 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work in brain research.  This is how he described how important the impact of proprioception and its contribution to the essential element of nerve supply was to overall health.  “Better than 90 percent of the energy output of the brain is used in relating to the physical body in its gravitational field.  The more mechanically distorted a person is, the less energy available for thinking, metabolism and healing.”

The unconscious understanding of the body’s positions and movements has always been the critical element of every moving animal species.  Without it, it is impossible to perform the basic functions of finding food and water, shelter and procreation.  Because of this, the proprioception component of your nerve supply is hardwired into regulating your body’s ability to handle stress.

Stress, and Your Nerve System
Ultimately, it is your nerve system that is responsible for handling stress.  Stress comes from three categories of sources:  chemical, physical, and mental.  That is, stress results from unhealthy choices in your fuel, air and spark.  Once your body encounters stress, however, there is a common response from your body.

The physiologist Hans Selye was the first to coin the term stress just over fifty years ago.  The hallmark of the response to stress inside your body (the stress response) is the release of stress hormones.  As discussed below, the release of these hormones is controlled by your nerve system.  When your body perceives something as a stress (read:  your nerve system senses a stressor), it sends signals to release hormones.  These signals are controlled by a part of the nerve system called the sympathetic nervous system.  Adrenalin and noradrenaline, also known as epinephrine and norepinephrine, along with cortisol are the initiators of a system-wide stress response in your body.

Fight-or-Flight, Rest and Repair, and Your Nerve System
Just as being awake and being asleep are two separate and distinct states, being stressed and being in a state of healing and repair are two separate and distinct states.  When our bodies are in a state of stress, the hormonal release stimulated by the nerve system prepares the body for a state of activity.  This means tearing tissue down, preparing to burn energy, and preparing to move.  Blood is sent to muscles, away from organs, blood pressure rises as vessels tighten, digestion slows, and immune responses weaken as the body prepares for action.  This feeling of stress, often referred to as the fight-or-flight response, is directed by the sympathetic nervous system.

The sympathetic nerve system is used by your body in response to stress, or, in other words, anything that your body perceives as a threat.  Acting intelligently, your body’s response to threats is to prepare for action:  fight-or-flight.  Even thinking of a stressful event will cause you to experience the influence of the sympathetic nerve system in your body.

To do this, however, there is a cost.  Spending energy to deal with a threat means halting the activities of rest and repair.  The sympathetic nerve system activity has an opposite system in your body dedicated to rest and repair called the parasympathetic nerve system.

Your parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for the activity of digestion, relaxation and reproduction.  This is the system your body activates during times of safety for healing, tissue repair and procreation.  In order to heal and repair effectively, you want to be in a state of rest and repair.

Research over the past twenty five years has shown how far-reaching the influence your nerve system is on the function of two other “super-systems” inside your body:  your immune system and your endocrine, or hormonal, system.

The Hard-Wired Connection Between Your Hormones, Immune System, and Your Nerve System
Prior to about twenty five years ago, mainstream science did not understand the intimate connection between the immune and nerve systems.  Patients of chiropractors, however, reaped the benefits of improved nerve system function for decades before this.  See this example of life-saving results patients of chiropractors, doctors trained to remove interference to nerve system function, had during the flu pandemic of 1918.

In fact, every immune organ in your body is richly influenced by communication from your nerve system.  Immune organs located in your body, including your network of lymph nodes, your thymus, spleen and bone marrow, and also most importantly in your digestive system, have their activity directed by your nerve system.

This connection is also one of the underlying mechanisms that explains why you are more susceptible to becoming sick when you are stressed.  During a period of stress, you shift into a more sympathetic fight-or-flight mode, promoting the release of stress hormones.  Chronic stress hormone release makes you more susceptible to illness.

Today, research showing how the immune system, hormonal system and nerve system are hard-wired together continues to grow more and more.  To read more, check out these links on this growing field of psychoneuroimmunology.

Living a Genetically Congruent Lifestyle: Understanding the Basics

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Research has more and more clearly defined what essential elements are necessary for a human being to express optimal health.  In order to experience true health, you must understand what basic ingredients, or essential elements, are absolutely necessary for your body.  When you think of essential elements, think:  vital.  Essential elements are the basic needs of your body – an example is oxygen from the air.

Like oxygen, your body has genetic needs that, when met, enable it to express health.  Without the essential elements, your body – and your health – suffer.  We use a bonfire as an analogy – in that the burning of a bonfire is a chain reaction of oxygen and heat combined with fuel.  The energy of a bonfire sustains itself as long as all three components are present.  When any of the three diminishes, the flame begins to dim.  To keep burning bright, you need to give your body everything it needs!

There are essential elements that your body genetically needs.  Your body has the energy to sustain the same life-long chain reaction, as long as all of the essential elements are provided by the choices that you make.  This is the essence of living a genetically congruent lifestyle.

Learning the essential elements of a genetically congruent lifestyle is vital to your health.  Because having a true understanding of these essential elements then allows the vital behaviors to take place – that is, you making the specific lifestyle choices that will allow you to regain and experience optimal health.

There are three points to understanding the concept of a genetically congruent lifestyle:

1.  You are genetically programmed for health.

2.  Your body has specific genetic needs that must be provided by your lifestyle choices.

3.  Lifestyle choices that don’t support your human genetic needs limit your health potential and promote weakness and chronic disease.

Healthy is NORMAL

Your body is in a state of constant repair.  Think about how your body constantly strives to repair and maintain a state of balance.  When you cut yourself, how often does it heal?  Every time, does it not?  And this is the same for every person, in fact every living thing, regardless of age.  Our bodies are in a constant state of breakdown and repair.  In fact, over 50,000 of your cells have died and been replaced as you’ve read this sentence.

The ability of this repair process to create health is determined by how well the essential elements that your body receives meet your body’s genetic needs.  Unfortunately today, a common misconception is that we are destined to develop sickness and disease as we age.  Truth be told, heart disease and cancer are not inevitable, no matter what age we achieve.  These chronic diseases, commonly called diseases of affluence, are a result of living a lifestyle that is out of sync with the genetic needs of our bodies as human beings.

The world-wide epidemic of chronic disease is something that is not found regardless of age when we live a genetically congruent lifestyle.  “Historical and archaeological evidence shows hunter-gatherers generally to be lean, fit, and largely free from signs and symptoms of chronic diseases,” according to Dr. Loren Cordain, professor at Colorado State University in this article from the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

That’s right – blood pressure does not rise as a result of aging, but as a result of unhealthy, genetically incongruent lifestyle choices.  They did not become overweight as they aged, they did not develop elevated cholesterol,and heart disease did not develop.

Where do these diseases – and their massive rise in rates across the globe – come from?  According to the World Health Organization, “The major risk factors for chronic disease are an unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and tobacco use.  If the major risk factors for chronic disease were eliminated, at least 80% of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes would be prevented; and 40% of cancer would be prevented.”

Chronic diseases, which are the number one killer not only in the US but world-wide, are not genetic in origin.  Rather, they are the result of our genetically incongruent lifestyle choices.  Our genes are programmed for health, not sickness.

What About Genetic Diseases?

People often tell us as health care providers that “I have this problem because my parents had it.”  Yet there is no evidence that because a relative had a chronic disease, that you will have it as well.

In fact, only less than 3% of disease states have a solely genetic basis.  North California’s Life Sciences Association has this to say regarding the prevalence of diseases that are truly genetic:

“Currently there are about 4,000 known genetic disorders, with new ones discovered every year. The vast majorities of the disorders are quite rare, and affect only one out of several thousand or million people.”

And even in these people with true genetic disease, the body still strives toward health in all of its other functions.  See this compelling story of a young woman with the most common of the genetic disorders, Cystic Fibrosis.

What is Genetically Congruent Living?

Modern humans refer to the period of time in human history that dates back to 50,000 years ago.  However, that is a very small amount of time relative to the hundreds of thousands of generations prior.  From Dr. James O’Keefe and Dr. Loren Cordain:

“Although the human genome has remained largely unchanged (DNA evidence documents relatively little change in the genome during the past 10,000 years), our diet and lifestyle have become progressively more divergent from those of our ancient ancestors. These maladaptive changes began approximately 10,000 years ago with the advent of the agricultural revolution and have been accelerating in recent decades. Socially, we are a people of the 21st century, but genetically we remain citizens of the Paleolithic era.”

This means that our bodies developed very specific genetic needs in a period of time that is much different from today.  Key differences include dietary intake in amounts and content, amounts and types of movement, and vast differences in social interaction, belief systems and stress levels.  In other words:  in how we eat, move and think.  In brief, we are designed to consume for fuel and not for fun, to move more and better, and to experience stable social support, rather than constant chronic stress.

Specifically, we walked 8-12 miles a day.  We moved over terrain in search of available food that we could gather and hunt.  We carried or dragged food and raw materials.  We ran after prey and from predators.  Once we caught it, we ate it – meaning our food was fresh and earned.

We also lived in groups of not more than 150, and typically stayed in one specific land area our entire lives.  And in those groups, we had belief systems that explained the behavior of the world around us.  These basics are imprinted on our DNA and define what we need to be healthy.

How Do Our Genes Influence Our Body?

To understand how your genes influence your body and its health and function, it is important to know that every cell in your body has the same set of genes.  That is, a cell in the lens of your eye has the same identical set of genes as a cell in your bone’s hardest layer, the cortex.  And these two cells are exactly the same genetically as a skin cell that divides every ninety days, which is the same as a cell in your nerve system that may not divide in 75 years.

As our bodies developed in the womb, every cell is sensitive to signals sent from the surrounding cells and from the mother’s body.  These signals from the environment are what determine the type of activity the cell will have in your body when it becomes formed.  This process is called gene expression.  The signals that your cells receive determine which genes are expressed.  In short, your cells respond to the environment by translating environmental signals in the form of turning certain genes on and certain genes off.

The way that genes direct the function of your body is by acting as a template for the production of proteins.  Proteins in turn act as structural components and also play a key role as enzymes that drive the vast majority of chemical reactions in your body.  So genes do very little directly, but they act as blueprints for the range of chemical compounds your body can make.

Epigenetics

This same process of chemical reactions happens to your body after you are born.  Your nerve system, endocrine system and immune system are all involved in detecting changes to your cells’ environment, both from inside and outside your body.  This information is sent via messenger to the cell’s nucleus, where it influences what genes are expressed (turned on or off).  So the cellular machinery responsible for everything from fat storage to fat breakdown, and cell division to DNA repair, is a complicated interaction between the hard-wired capabilities of your genes and the signals they receive from your environment.  To see a powerful example of epigenetics, see how these mice, genetic altered to be obese, became normal healthy weight again – through living a genetically congruent life.

Healthful Living: There is No Age Limit to Wellness

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“Oh, I’m too old for that.” Too old for…what? Bungee jumping? Okay, that may be true. Helicopter snowboarding in Alaska? Yeah, maybe. But too old to be healthy? No way!

We’re designed to be healthy – it’s that simple. The genetic code built into every cell of our bodies is programmed to move toward health.

Every Bite We Take
Every day, every moment, with every decision or action we make, we are moving toward health or away from health. This is based largely on the lifestyle choices or behaviors we choose to engage in (or choose not to engage in). This ebb and flow is happening literally on a day-to-day and moment-to-moment basis. This is true of children and adults alike.

Every cell in our body – approximately 100 trillion of them – has been genetically programmed to strive toward health, toward optimal function. For example, when a person stops smoking, although there may have been decades of toxic stress on the body in general and the lungs in particular, the body will immediately begin the move toward healing the cells and tissues of the body that have been damaged from the years of abuse. Lung tissue begins cleaning out the build-up of tar and nicotine that has accumulated over the years, and the microscopic hair-like cilia within lung cells begins to reappear. The body’s drive to be healthy and to heal itself is nothing short of miraculous.

Once we understand that the body has a built-in drive to be healthy, we can leverage that tendency by simply choosing appropriate lifestyle behaviors that support the body’s efforts, and avoiding ones that undermine our health – and here’s the best part: this can be done at any age, and as Dr. Kratka is fond of saying, “It’s never too late to do the right thing.”

Three Critical Concepts:

1.  A decision not to live a life of known healthy habits is a decision itself to be unhealthy. Yes, that’s a strong statement, but it’s also very true.

2.  Wellness is a process of ongoing lifestyle behaviors or habits that support the body’s move toward health. Wellness is not defined or determined by going to doctors, getting checkups or having “preventative” diagnostic tests performed. Having a colonoscopy or EKG does not make a person healthy – it simply allows for early diagnosis.

3.  Both health and disease are additive or cumulative processes. This means that just because you don’t have an immediate consequence to choosing right or wrong lifestyle behaviors doesn’t mean those lifestyle choices are not creating positive or negative changes within your body’s physiology – they are; they just might take months or years to manifest. In the case of right behaviors, this is what we call Compounded Wellness.

The Choice is Yours
For example, to choose to drink optimal amounts of pure water every day is a decision that moves the body toward being healthy, no matter what your age or current state of health. To choose nutrient-poor, processed food over nutrient-dense, fresh food is a decision that moves the body away from health. By the way, “away from health” means toward disease. These are two great wellness lifestyle choices that people of any age can make every day.

Effort and Payoff
Yes, it takes effort to consistently engage in health-promoting lifestyle choices. Yes, it takes time to develop new, good habits (good habits are just as hard to break as bad habits). Yes, some days we don’t feel like “working out.” Yes, there are times when we want to reach for convenient die-fast food. But, what’s the trade-off? Talk to people with terminal diseases – they’ll always say the same thing, “I’d give anything to have my health back.” You don’t have to give anything – just your effort.

If you don’t take time to be healthy, you’ll have to take time to be sick.

Essential Elements

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Intrinsic to The Bonfire Health Program is the premise that human beings experience their greatest health potential when exposed to the optimal environment.  Our genes have been shaped over thousands of generations to require specific elements or nutrients in order to function optimally.  These essential elements have been identified and documented by the best researchers in the fields of physiology, nutrition, psychology and genetics, among others.  When these essential elements are provided consistently by our lifestyle choices and behavior patterns, cells function optimally.

Although our gene expression determines our physiology, our environment determines the expression of our genes.  The science of Epigenetics teaches us that our genes are subordinate to their internal and external environment.  Your internal environment is determined by your behavior patterns in three domains of lifestyle choice:  how you eat, how you move, and how you think.  When lifestyles are genetically congruent, man expresses better health.  In other words, when we eat, move and think in ways that compliment, rather than contradict, our genetic requirements for optimal cell function, we experience optimal health.  Therefore, health is the natural consequence of a genetically congruent lifestyle.

Conversely, when we eat, move and/or think in ways that are contrary to our innate design, we interfere with the natural expression of cell function.  In other words, when we make choices that are at odds with our genetic design, we express sickness.

When we choose behavior patterns that are inherently toxic to our bodies, such as poor food choices, or we neglect to include elements that are innately required for health, such as exercise or adequate sleep, we interfere with the natural expression of health and get sick.

Your life is a path.  Imagine that path is lined with cobblestones.  When complete, a cobblestone path provides sure footing and a stable journey.  When stones are missing, you can expect an uneasy, bumpy ride.  If the path is free and clear of debris, your walk is sure to be smooth and straight.  If the road is littered with rubble, you will likely trip and fall.  The essential elements that you choose to provide in your deliberate approach to your way of life are the cobblestones.  Any toxic choices or behaviors that you choose to practice will clutter your path and cause you to stub your toe – or worse.

The Bonfire Health Program represents the definitive summary of the outcomes determined by the most current research on the essential elements that your cells require to express health.  The best practices and vital behaviors recommended to ensure the provision of these elements are simple, but profound.  And most importantly, the leverage of the science of social change infused throughout the program will guarantee you the greatest opportunity to get these behaviors into your life and sustain these changes.  We help you do it – AND KEEP TO IT!

Globesity

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From The World Health Organization (WHO) on controlling the global obesity epidemic:

The Challenge

At the other end of the malnutrition scale, obesity is one of today’s most blatantly visible – yet most neglected – public health problems. Paradoxically coexisting with undernutrition, an escalating global epidemic of overweight and obesity – “globesity” – is taking over many parts of the world. If immediate action is not taken, millions will suffer from an array of serious health disorders.

Obesity is a complex condition, one with serious social and psychological dimensions, that affects virtually all age and socioeconomic groups and threatens to overwhelm both developed and developing countries. In 1995, there were an estimated 200 million obese adults worldwide and another 18 million under-five children classified as overweight. As of 2000, the number of obese adults has increased to over 300 million. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the obesity epidemic is not restricted to industrialized societies; in developing countries, it is estimated that over 115 million people suffer from obesity-related problems.

Generally, although men may have higher rates of overweight, women have higher rates of obesity. For both, obesity poses a major risk for serious diet-related noncommunicable diseases, including diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and stroke, and certain forms of cancer. Its health consequences range from increased risk of premature death to serious chronic conditions that reduce the overall quality of life.

The response:  making healthy choices easy choices

WHO began sounding the alarm in the 1990s, spearheading a series of expert and technical consultations. Public awareness campaigns were also initiated to sensitize policy-makers, private sector partners, medical professionals and the public at large. Aware that obesity is predominantly a “social and environmental disease,” WHO is helping to develop strategies that will make healthy choices easier to make. In collaboration with the University of Sydney (Australia), WHO is calculating the worldwide economic impact of overweight and obesity. It is also working with the University of Auckland (New Zealand) to analyse the impact that globalization and rapid socioeconomic transition have on nutrition and to identify the main political, socioeco-nomic, cultural and physical factors which promote obesogenic environments.”

:: Report of the Joint WHO/FAO Expert Consultation on Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases (Geneva, 28 January – 1 February 2002) – WHO Technical Report Series No. 916

Scientific background papers: The background papers prepared for the joint WHO/FAO Expert Consultation on diet, nutrition and the prevention of chronic diseases (Geneva, 28 January – 1 February 2002) have been published in Public Health Nutrition, volume 7, number 1(A), February 2004

For more of the facts about the globesity epidemic, check out these obesity statistics.