How to Win Survival of the Fittest

We have made rapid changes to our environment over the past 200 years⎯most significantly over the past 20-40 years. These changes are causing our bodies to attempt to adapt. However, we are failing to adapt adequately enough, resulting in modern or “neolithic” chronic diseases that are bankrupting societies and causing a type of suffering never seen in human history.

Some of the most significant changes we’ve made in the past 100 years center around the following:

• Food (genetics of food, processing of food, shipping and storage of food, quantity of food consumption, etc.)
• Electromagnetic field exposure (EMF)
• Night and day cycles as they relate to light exposure
• Air quality and exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOC’s used in building materials we are surrounded by)
• Water treatment and processing

We find ourselves living longer, but losing quality of life earlier and earlier at alarming rates. Neurodevelopmental disorders, autoimmune disease, deadly allergies and type 2 diabetes are a pandemic among children. Heart disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and cancer are being diagnosed in younger and younger populations. These diseases of modernity, or “neolithic” diseases, have less to do with genetics than previously thought and more to do with “epi-genetic” environmental triggers. The above mentioned changes to our environment can switch genes on and off in disease, causing combinations that would otherwise not be expressed.

Evolutionary adaptive changes are not going to happen in our lifetime. Evolutionary adaptation can turn the challenges we face today into advantages to our physiology tomorrow. Geology, the fossil record and the science of evolution tell us that certain characteristics on this planet and of this planet have remained unchanged for millions of years, and therefore adaptation to these characteristics happened long ago with little need to adapt any further. Examples of these relatively unchanging characteristics are:

• Concentrations of atmospheric gases
• Electromagnetic field of the earth
• Night and Day cycles
• Seasonal changes based on geography
• Gravitational characteristics of the earth, moon and solar system
• Temperature range that sustains plant and animal life

All of these characteristics have been impacted and altered for all of us in the modern, industrialized world over the past 100 years in a way that puts a stress on the human body which we have not successfully adapted to. This failure to adapt is giving us the symptoms and chronic illnesses that visitors to this website and my office are concerned about. The failure to adapt is a function of time. Species-specific adaptive genetic changes take hundreds of thousands of years.  Two or three generations is just not enough.  

So what is an intelligent person and society to do?

Can we build on our knowledge and still benefit from technology and human advancements without sacrificing our long term health and happiness? The way I see it, YOU have 3 choices:

1. Head in the sand. React to health challenges by treating symptoms with medications and surgeries and hope for the best. This approach will ensure:
   1. Chronic illness.
   2. Poor function and performance in life leading to unfulfilled potential.
   3. Guaranteed neolithic disease while our bodies fail to adapt to rapid changes in our environment.
   4. Sick individuals and sick societies (physical and mental health challenges will skyrocket, it has already begun).
   5. Pretend that not smoking, eating a lowfat diet and getting 1 hour per week of exercise is enough to avoid the consequences of the environment you live in.
2. Run and Hide. Move away from modernity, go to the Andes mountains, the outback of Australia, the Amazon, the Arctic circle or anywhere else on the planet  you can hide from people, society and technology. Once there, you can live in an EMF-free, cell tower-free, fossil fuel-free environment with relatively low level of pollution and rely on your surroundings for food, water, building materials.
3. Bio-hack, Adapt and Win. Learn to understand your physiology as it relates to your environment (modern life) and make your own adaptations based on evolutionary principles of physiology. “Bio-Hack” your way to health, while still enjoying the town or city you call home. “Bio-Hacking” and its effects can be measured by doctors and specialists who understand the latest in science and technology. I predict Bio-Hackers are the healthcare providers of the future.

As I see it, Choice #3 is the only choice. Next week’s post will present definitions and examples of Bio-Hacking.
Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

Please submit concerns about your particular environment in our comments section. Perhaps this community can help find the best solutions to challenges you may be having with your water, food, EMF, and air quality environments.