Energy - The Measure of Our Health

Energy is something we all need to function effectively. We instinctively know when we have it and when we loose it. It is something the body produces and uses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The presence of it allows us to sail through the day, while it's absence causes us to drag. It's something we feel from deep inside. That's because energy is produced at the cellular level and released for the remainder of the body;s systems to use and keep us charged up.

We all know what happens when our energy level is low. We mope around and are very inefficient in our physical and mental activities. Everything from brain fog to just not feeling well enough to get things done, can be attributed to lack of energy.

So let's examine some of the culprits that use up our energy. High on that list is stress. Being stressed out all the time can have a debilitating effect on our energy level. While it affects individuals differently, the energy expended on stress subtracts from our overall energy reserve.

The next is toxins. We live in a world where toxins are everywhere. They're in our food, our water, and even in the air we breath. As a result of toxins, our kidneys and liver are constantly overburdened while trying to process and deal with these poisons.

Prescription and illicit drugs are a substantial source of energy degradation. These chemical substances can impact liver and kidney function severely, and cause the body to expend huge amounts of energy just to cope with the toxic overload.

Cigarette smoking has been shown to cause problems, but many people don't associate it with depleting the body of energy. The fact is, anything containing carcinogens and other chemicals diminishes our energy, and over the long term damages our health.

Processed foods are typically loaded with sugar and sodium. The problem is the accumulative nature, as these substances are found in so many foods, in amounts that in combination, vastly exceed daily recommended intakes.

Finally our lifestyle in general has an impact on our energy level. If you consume more than modest amounts of alcohol or you consume energy drinks that have huge amounts of sugar, caffeine and other substances, that will have a negative effect on your health, and rob you of energy, but the negative bonus is, you may also pick up an addiction.

So whether you are a high or low energy person remember, energy is what you feel when the body has successfully fulfilled the remainder of it's perceived responsibilities. The use of natural energy enhancers is the safest way to feel great and charged up while avoiding crashes.

The human body is made up of trillions of cells of all types. Seldom though, do we think of these as living life forms themselves. Each one is born and then dies when it's appointed mission is completed. What I have just described is normal cell operation. For the body to remain healthy, this cycle is necessary. This condition is what I refer to as Homeostasis.

Homeostasis, according to Wikipedia - is defined as the property of a system, either open or closed, that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, constant condition. Multiple dynamic equilibrium adjustment and regulation mechanisms make homeostasis possible.

But what happens when cells act abnormally? Homeostasis is interrupted and the system becomes unstable and out of balance. Prolonged periods of body imbalance can start a disease process that will manifest itself as (that depends on the vulnerability created and the body's inability to respond appropriately).

Cells have chemical transmitters and receptors that enable communication. When communication is disrupted, messages cannot be sent or received properly. One of three possible things occurs.
(1) The massages are received but the response is not timely or vigorous enough solve the problem, causing the vulnerability to be compounded and eventually leading to a degenerative diseased condition.

(2) The messages are not received at all and therefore no response is mounted. This will certainly lead to all manner of disease and sickness.

(3) The messages are incorrect and causes the response to be inaccurate possible causing an autoimmune response.

It is important to recognize that this cycle of detection and extinction goes on 24-7 and determines our relative state of health.

That explains why a person can contract a typically minor bug and end up not surviving. The problem was not only the bug itself, but the internal condition of the host and its ability to fight the bug. That is also why when someone dies of Diabetes, (for instance), the term "Complications of Diabetes" is used. Its just another way of saying that person's immune system was compromised and too non-functional to afford them a fighting chance.

We often hear how the body heals itself, but how does it do it? It's all about that 24/7 cell activity that causes this to happen. We've also heard how nutrition is important to good health. Let's explore what the cells require to be at their peak. They need Sugars!

It has been discovered that our internals need a class of essential sugars called monosaccharides. These sugars are essential to proper cell function and healing.

If any of these essential sugars are missing or present in insufficient amounts, the body will attempt to create what is missing. However, conferring this responsibility on the body means that in order for it to create these essential sugars, it will use huge amounts of energy, and take nutrients from elsewhere to do so. Sort of like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

So where do we acquire these essential sugars? It turns out that when we consume fruits and vegetables that are grown locally, and are vine ripened; we get the maximum amount of nutrition available from that fruit or vegetable. The problem is multinational growers from around the world harvest before these plants are ripe and before the natural process is complete, yielding plants that are nutritionally deficient. Added to that dilemma, crop rotation which has been used for thousands of years, is somehow passé. Nutrition depleted soil yields plants that are not fully charged.

A word about supplements
Care should be exercised when choosing supplements. First, is the extraction process. Chemical extraction of substances will yield a chemically based end product. How unnatural is that? Second, going after the active ingredients without a complete understanding of other compounds that are naturally-occurring in the plant, but missing in the end product, probably won't be as effective. Supplements that are whole food nutrition will often yield the best results.

The best course to follow is to consume your fruits and vegetables from juicing, salads and most of all in raw form, as cooking greatly diminishes nutrient content.

When you mention sugar, most people think of sweeteners like cane sugar, fructose, artificial sweeteners and the like. What they have in common is, they appeal to our sense of taste for something sweet.

There is however a class of sugars that don't necessarily appeal to taste, but is vitally important to our health. This class of sugars is called Monosaccharides.

According to Wikipedia, the definition of Monosaccharides is: Monosaccharides (from Greek monos: single, sacchar: sugar) are the most basic units of biologically important carbohydrates. They are the simplest form of sugar and are usually colorless, water-soluble, crystalline solids. Some monosaccharides have a sweet taste. Examples of monosaccharides include glucose (dextrose), fructose (levulose), galactose, xylose and ribose. Monosaccharides are the building blocks of disaccharides such as sucrose and polysaccharides (such as cellulose and starch).

While there are about 200 carbohydrates in nature, 8 have been identified as crucial to the maintenance of human health. The fact is, of the 8 essential sugars required by the body, only 2 are common in our diets and are digestible (meaning the body has to digest and process them). The other 6 are predigested (which means they are live from the plant and predigested), we have to ingest them, from raw, fresh, fruits and vegetables, get them through supplementation, or our bodies have to make.

What happened to the other 6 essential sugars? They are virtually gone from our food due to:
Mass commercial farming
Green Harvesting
Processed food
Preservatives (which kills the live components in food)
Nutrient depleted soil

In 1996 all 8 Monosaccharides were identified, and thus the term Glycoproteins was penned.

It requires tremendous amounts of energy, and the robbing of nutrients from elsewhere to create these vital sugars. The odds of the body continually creating these essential sugars correctly are low at best, especially when the required nutrition is not available. In other words, "robbing Peter to pay Paul". What happens when Paul does not have it? The result is, the process will end up deficient.

So, while you may not be aware of what is going on within your body relative to these processes, you may just feel tired and devoid of energy, and wonder why. Worse yet, if your body can't make these sugars in sufficient quantity and quality, some diseases will manifest themselves eventually.

To explain how these sugars are used, they attach themselves to proteins at the outer periphery of each cell. Depending on the particular cell type and function, these glycoproteins are what make cell-to-cell communications possible.

This communication is necessary for the detection and defense against pathogens (a pathogen is a virus, toxin, or bacteria) that are trying 24-7 to invade the body. If there is a miss-communication or a communication breakdown, you get sick and or get a disease.

By way of reference the 8 essential sugars are:
Glucose
Galactose
Fucose
Mannose
N-AcetylGalactosamine
N-AcetylGlucosamine
N-AcetylNeuraminic Acid(sialic acid)
Xylose(wood sugar)

We have an abundance of Glucose and Galactose in our diets, but the other 5, we are deficient of, and there in lies the problem, because if we are not getting them in our diet then, we either have to supplement to get them or our bodies have to make them.

It's difficult to see how the body can properly make a substance when it itself, is already deficient and not working properly. By the way, the only place to get these live predigested molecules naturally, is from vine ripened fruits and vegetables, (not those that are picked before they are ripe and shipped across the world), and made available out of season.

These sugars are so important that your system's immune response or lack of it is directly related to whether you have them in quantity and quality.

An overactive immune system - can lead to Auto-Immune Disorders: This is when your immune system overreacts and destroys good cells and tissues. Here is a list of just a few of the more than 80, Auto-immune Disorders.

Celiac Disease
Crohn's Disease
Grave's Disease
Lupus
Multiple Sclerosis
Fibromyalgia
Psoriasis
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Type 1 Diabetes
Ulcerative Colitis
Vitiligo
Hepatitis C

Under-active immune system - Your immune system does not respond appropriately, which leads to cancers and infections.

No matter the outcome of an immune response, cell communication, or the lack of it, plays a major role.

It is interesting to note that 5 of these sugars are in mother's breast milk, to setup the baby's defense system against disease, so you wonder why more mothers don't breast-feed anymore. I would suggest that they are unaware of the possible consequences of not affording their babies this vital protection. So as a result, many infants start life at a disadvantage because their tiny systems have to do what mother's milk could have but didn't.

One of the most ignored aspects of health is energy. The fact is, the body will rob energy from wherever it can to make up for what it is missing. What is missing is detected first at the cellular level. As the outward manifestation of what we perceive as energy diminishes, you can bet that energy is being robbed by cells to try to complete their mission. What is left is how we feel expressed as energetic or tired and worn out.