By far the leading cause of death worldwide are a class of illnesses doctors call “non- communicable diseases” or “NCDs”. These are chronic long term illnesses that are not spread from person to person as are infectious illnesses and that do not resolve themselves. According to the World Health Organization there are thousands of different types of non-communicable diseases also called chronic diseases that fall into four major classes: cardiovascular, respiratory, cancer and diabetes.
However, while there are numerous NCD diagnoses, from a healing perspective, the actual names, which are really nothing more than Latin descriptions, really don’t matter. Whether the diagnosis is Fibromyalgia (literally: “muscle fiber pain”) or
“Molecular biology has shown that even the simplest of all living systems on the earth today…cells, are exceedingly complex objects. Although the tiniest…cells are incredibly small, weighing less than .000000000001 grams, each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery, made up altogether of one hundred thousand million atoms, far more complicated than any machine built by man and absolutely without parallel in the nonliving world.”
-Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
It’s called the living biological cell, and scientists know that, though it weighs trillions less than a copper penny, even the simplest ones are exceedingly complex; they are biochemically sophisticated “beings” capable of creating all the chemistry and components of life. When meditated on for even a moment, one can be forgiven for seeing the cell's existence as testimony of a guiding hand behind biological existence. Even if one isn’t inspired to wax divine or poetic, it’s hard not to be awed by this tiny blob of living-ness that can manufacture 10 million molecules a second.
Our world is illuminated and energized from the light released by the sun streaming earthward in the form waves. Those light waves are similar to the movement of water in the ocean, except solar waves, originating 90 million miles away and taking about 8 minutes to get to Earth, take on distinct wavelengths. Three of those wavelengths, known as UvA, UvB and UvC are invisible and have been associated with the damaging, and sometimes deadly effects conventionally attributed to solar radiation.
UvC, the shortest of the three wavelengths, is associated with skin cancers and is considered to be the most dangerous, but (theoretically anyway) the earth’s atmosphere offers protection.
If you’re one of the hundreds of millions of Americans who've gotten a prescription this year, you probably noticed that the text was illegible. And not because of the doctor’s calligraphy. Even typewritten scripts are impossible to understand. That’s because they’re written in Latin. Hmm…now isn’t that interesting. Does your doctor or your pharmacist speak Latin? Probably not. So, what could possibly be the purpose of writing instructions and details for something as important, potent and very dangerous in an ancient language that is not only arcane and inscrutable, but that hasn’t even been spoken commonly for 2000 years?
Yum cholesterol, eat up! Despite the fact that for decades doctors have demonized cholesterol as a molecular monster, these days the conventional understanding has changed. Earlier this year the United Sates Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee reversed its longstanding words of wisdom about avoiding egg yolks, shrimp, lobster and other cholesterol containing foods, proclaiming that the much-maligned substance is “…no longer a nutrient of concern”. No longer a nutrient of concern? Great, it’s about time! But what’s missing from the lifting of the medical and social stigma associated with eating cholesterol-containing foods is some actual love for what the under-appreciated biochemical really is and what it does to keep the body healthy.
Cholesterol is an anabolic (building) chemical. It plays an important role in the production of the hormones of youth, fertility, and growth. Its mere presence tells the body that anti-aging and repair can proceed and its production is stimulated by stress and tissue breakdown, which, in just the right amount, functions as growth signals. This partially accounts for our societal tendency to have higher blood cholesterol levels than we actually need. Our cultural inclinations to long term chronic stress and degenerative diseases, along with high blood sugar and insulin (there’s a reason that diabetes and elevated blood cholesterol go hand-in-hand), not to mention the physiological burden of nutritional deficiencies, are the ultimate cause of elevated cholesterol and the real bad guys in the epic decades-long drama called “CHOLESTEROL-MANIA”.
