Our Miraculous Self Healing Bodies
By Tammy Alvord
Have you ever stopped to wonder how it is that if you scrape or cut yourself, within minutes, the body—if it is healthy—can begin reconstruction of the skin? When our skin (the largest organ in the body) gets injured it sends a distress signal to the brain relating the injury and where. First the platelets in your blood rush to the site and clump together to form the initial plug. At the same time, dissolved proteins in the blood called clotting factor pile in to make the clot bigger and stronger. The toughest and most notable one is called fibrin. Fibrin is essentially a microscopic mesh that holds everything together like cement, giving the body the time it needs to create new skin cells to replace the damaged ones. Once the skin underneath is healed, the body then begins to digest the fibrin to release the scab and reveal the new pink skin.
This is only one of the various ways that your body can heal itself.
Each and every one of your 100 trillion or so cells gets replaced by new cells in an ongoing regular basis to keep us at peak performance. Here’s the tricky part, in order for old cells to be replaced by new healthy cells we have to give the body what it needs.
Just what exactly does it need?
For starters it needs pure water. Our bodies are 75% water. So this one is big! Tap water and most bottled waters are not pure. They cannot filter out all the prescription drugs used by many Americans. I recommend using a RO (reverse osmosis) system for all your drinking and cooking water needs. Or using the Clearly Filtered Water Pitcher.
Also important are exercise and deep breathing; our bodies were designed to move. This is one of the main ways we detoxify. The contractions caused during the movements push old waste materials and toxins like carbon dioxide from our tissues and cells and then let clean water and oxygen back in. When we are stagnant, our cells get stagnant, creating a cesspool of toxins with no way out. Eventually, this leads to cell damage or accelerated aging.
Sunlight is critical for the health of our cells. Yeah I said it, we NEED sunlight. Now let’s be clear, when I say we need sunlight I do not mean that we need to sunbathe for hours every day— this is most certainly not healthy. Our bodies can only produce Vitamin D (a precursor for many enzymatic and hormone related activities essential for life) if we are exposed to the sun’s rays. So how much is enough? Most experts believe that once your skin has turned just the slightest bit pink or just before is best. Anything more and now you are causing more damage than gaining benefits. If you have a darker skin tone you will need more sun exposure than those with a lighter complexion.
Nutritional Excellence is a key factor in the health of the body and all of its cells. Whole foods in the form they are found in nature are the very best fuel you can put into your body. Green leafy veggies (including herbs, spices, sea vegetables and algae) top the list of nutritional power that is vital for our bodies to thrive. Things like minerals, vitamins, amino acids, chlorophyll, antioxidants, fiber both insoluble and soluble, and thousands of phytonutrients all work together in perfect harmony. They contain so many different nutritional components that they are still discovering new ones all the time. No wonder our parents always said eat your greens! Besides greens, which should be eaten three times a day, there are many other whole foods that share these amazing qualities as well as some of their very own. Fruits, root veggies, nuts, seeds, and super foods (Cocao, Maca, nutritional yeast, goji berries, chia, hemp, and flax to name a few) also shine when it comes to nutritional excellence.
Did you know that the body and brain do most of the repair and damage control while you sleep? This highly complex task takes a lot of time to perform properly. Eating before bedtime causes the body to put off repair and forces it to work on digestion. Getting 7-9 hours of sleep ensures that the body and brain have the time and extra energy to neutralize or clear out excess toxins that accumulated during the day, repair damage and replenish your cells for the next day. If working properly, you should feel refreshed and new every morning.
Last but most certainly not least is a Positive Mental Outlook on life. Nutritional excellence has a major impact on the health of our emotions; they are not separate from each other. How we process the everyday things that life throws our way has a huge impact on the health of our cells and overall health of our entire body. It can keep us sick or it can help us heal. Exercise, Yoga, meditation and prayer are excellent ways to improve your outlook on life.