Healthy Cells!

Our bodies are made up of cells, approximately 75 trillion cells in fact!

Our cells are our everything. They are the power houses (also known as the mitochondria) and supply energy to our bodies. They are the building blocks, the factories of our bodies and of all living organisms. Every organ, tissue, vessel etc is made up of cells.

Why am I talking about cells?

Because…the quality of our life depends on the quality of our cells.

Our cells are always responding to the environment they are in. If you provide your cells what they need, they will thrive and you will feel healthy, and full of vitality and energy. Do the opposite, and limit or don’t provide enough of what your cells need and you will be more prone to illness, feel lethargic and generally lack vital life force.

So what do cells need to survive? They need 3 things:

1. Oxygen
2. Nutrients (not the same as food!)
3. The ability to eliminate their waste

In a study, two time Nobel Prize winner, Dr Alexis Carroll was able to keep cells from a chicken heart alive for 28 years (far outliving the average life of a chicken which is 7 to 12 years). In the end, the cells did not die of ageing, they simply terminated the study because the cells appeared immortal when supplied exactly what they needed. As long as cells were not physically ruptured through injury, they could seemingly live forever.

Interesting right?!

Consider this, everything we take into our bodies – food, drinks, the air we breathe, products we use on our bodies etc – must be either assimilated or eliminated. Anything that our cells cannot recognise and use as energy, is considered a foreign matter and must be eliminated from the body. This requires a huge amount of energy.

The main organs of elimination for the body are;

1. Skin
2. Lungs/Respiratory tract
3. Bowels
4. Kidneys
5. Liver

If any of these pathways of elimination are not functioning at optimum, these harmful toxins and chemicals are not eliminated properly from the body and are then recirculated around the blood stream, depriving cells of key nutrients and oxygen and causing illness.

With the ever increasing amount of chemicals and toxins in our everyday environment, our cells are overburdened. Our cells cannot work fast enough to eliminate all the toxins, before more toxins and chemicals are thrown in on top of them again. The body becomes swamped.

Most foods we eat nowadays (packaged, processed foods) do not provide the nutrients our cells need. They are not feeding our life source and more often than not are draining our cells of every bit of energy they have because they have to work so hard to eliminate it.

So how can we help our cells?

Breathe properly – practise deep belly breathing. Most people take small, shallow breaths into the chest. The most fruitful gas exchanges happen at the lower end of the lungs and in order for the air to reach here, you need to breathe in deep (think about the belly) and allow the diaphragm to fully expand. Breathe in through the nose as well because the nose acts as a filtering system for viruses, bacteria etc. By the same process, fully expel all air from the lungs by contracting the diaphragm. This will allow a surge of fresh oxygen into the body. Belly breathing will become second nature with practise but at the start, make a conscious effort to breathe deeply at least 4 times throughout each day for a couple of cycles.

Eat real food – eat colourful fruits and vegetables provided for by nature. Buy organic where possible to avoid additional toxins and chemicals and avoid packaged, processed and refined food as much as possible. These foods actually drain our cells of energy and leave us feeling lethargic as our cells have to work to eliminate these foods, they do not provide nutrients which our body can assimilate. Eating your fresh fruit and vegetables however, provides the nutrients your body needs to repair itself, thrive, fight infection, heal and create energy. They also provide antioxidants which are vital for neutralising free radicals in the body (consider taking a high-quality antioxidant supplement if not eating enough fresh foods).

Exercise – make your cells work, even as you age. Making less demand on our cells actually makes them weaker. The old phrase, use it or loose it, applies to cells as well. If they are not kept active and revitalised, they won’t be very healthy. I recently wrote an article on rebounding (read it here) and this is one amazing cellular workout!

Our health is our wealth and without providing the right energy to our cells, health won’t be very achievable.

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