We as a culture have strayed from our natural ways to a dangerous point – a true ‘tipping point’ – whereby if we don’t recognize our faulty navigation, we are destined to crash on the rocks. For millions of years, as a species we moved forward in our environmental and personal health domains. Now, just in the past 200 years for the first time in human history, we’ve done something never seen before in the history of man – we’ve actually moved away from increased health and longevity to the point where man is now the sickest he’s ever been in our estimated 2.5 million years on earth as Homo sapiens. The statistics today are staggering: in America and much of the ‘modern Western world’, 4 out of every 5 people will die from lifestyle behavior diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity; additionally, in the past 30 years alone, senile dementia disorders, autoimmune diseases, allergies, skin conditions and asthma have reached unprecedented levels. Only three to four generations ago, chronic disease was rare to non-existent. Even more disturbing is the fact that it is now common for children to develop these conditions and diseases, something never seen as recently as one to two generations ago.

The sad irony of this is that during this same 200 year period of unprecedented ‘back sliding’, man’s ability to scientifically analyze and understand our environmental surroundings and our physical biology has created great clarity as to the how and why of our declining health epidemic. And yet, we continue to head for the rocks to the point where former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmano stated in the 2008 Chronic Disease Almanac “The United States is experiencing an unsustainable disease burden – 130 million people today suffer from chronic diseases – taking a tremendous toll on individuals, families, and communities. In addition to lives lost and quality of life lost, we are also a nation in crisis – an economic crisis. We spend over $2 trillion a year – about 16 percent of our gross domestic product – on health care”. [The fact that we even have a ‘Chronic Disease Almanac’ speaks volumes to our faulty navigation.]

There is an enormous disconnect within our society whereby massive resources are devoted to taking care of people who, out of ignorance, denial or the belief that medical science will bail them out when the consequences of their lifestyle choices manifest as disease, don’t take care of themselves.  The sad truth is people today are simply breaking the law – the law of cause and effect. As science supports and common sense dictates, we reap what we sow from our lifestyle choices. There is a massive body of irrefutable scientific knowledge on how to avoid and prevent (and in most cases, reverse) virtually all chronic and autoimmune disease through genetically congruent lifestyle behaviors. Not through genetic research, genetic biotech medical treatment, but through the dozens of lifestyle choices we make each and every day in the way we eat, move and think. Our ancestors, both ancient and recent, were successful at this – they lived in ways that were compatible with our genetic design or heritage, our physiology. We too can do the same.

Yes, we are at a tipping point – globally as a species, collectively as a nation, and individually as people living our lives out day to day. The good news is that we have the knowledge of how to change course; we have the knowledge of where to change course; the only question you must ask yourself is whether you have the will to change course.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by. And that made all the difference.                    
                                                                            - Robert Frost

Welcome to bonfire – your map, toolbox and owner's manual to create the change that must take place.

Yours in health, Dr. Paul