The essential requirements for survival have not changed. There are four key factors that determine how long and how well you survive. These are unchangeable and essential to life: air, water, food and motion.
You need oxygen to survive, which you get from breathing the air. Most people do not breathe deeply, but breathe shallowly. Without deep breathing, you can have difficulty getting sufficient oxygen. This is why exercise is important. You breathe deeper during and after exercise. Without sufficient air, you cannot survive more than 3 minutes.
Your body is 70-75% water. Without sufficient water you cannot survive more than 3 days. It is estimated that over 80% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Dehydration has been linked to most major common conditions like allergies, headaches, back pain, digestive disorders, fatigue, depression, arthritis, skin issues, degenerative diseases and more. The type of water that you consume influences the efficiency of your hydration. You lose ½ your weight in ounces daily through normal body function. If you do not replace this amount with water that can get into your cells to hydrate and flush out toxins, you become dehydrated.
You cannot survive more than 3 weeks without food. Food is an essential component to life, but the type of food consumed matters. Food in its whole and raw form is the most natural food for the body. Processed, manmade food with chemicals and preservatives, composed of artificial ingredients, cannot nourish and rebuild your body. Nutritional supplements made from foods are most utilized by your body, compared to synthetic manmade products. The type of food consumed determines the quality of your survival.
The last ingredient essential for survival is motion. Your body was designed to move daily. Current cultural habits require people to sit 80% of the time. Sitting with little motion decreases the mobility of spinal joints and body fluids. While the heart pumps blood, lymphatic fluid needs body motion. Both spinal joints and lymphatic fluid rely on your movement and exercise for health. Without sufficient motion, joints become stiff and arthritic, and lymphatic fluid flow becomes sluggish, weakening your immune system.
If any of these 4 essentials are non-optimal, your body experiences stress. The stress response is an inherent body reaction that releases hormones to deal with stress. This results in a hormonal imbalance that creates physical indicators like fatigue, unwanted weight gain, pain, digestive issues, allergies and more.
The solution to longevity is to decrease the stress on the body by ensuring that the 4 key essential ingredients to survival are at optimal levels. By fixing the cause of your body stress, the stress response reduces, your body can repair, and survival is enhanced.
By Carol Ann Fischer, BS, DC, ND
