Aging, Long-Lasting Health,
most
to we
diseases,
and Your
you will discover that old age and illness have
do with each other. The grow older
age. Let
me
185
Healing System
are
caused
nothing
majority of the diseases that afflict by factors that have nothing to do
us as
with
explain.
If you look around the world and peruse the international public health data, you’ll see that the majority of the diseases that afflict us age in the Western industrialized societies are virtually absent in poor, developing countries. These diseases include heart disease (the as we
world’s number-one killer),
blood pressure, diabetes, emphy sema, arthritis, cancer, and many other conditions that are rampant in North America and Europe, but that are rare in places such as
high
Africa and Asia. These diseases, referred
Schweitzer linked
as
to
by
the late Dr. Albert
“diseases of civilization,” have been shown
factors under
control, such
to
be
directly
diet, lifestyle, and personal health habits. These factors accumulate over a lifetime, to
our own
as our
and their cumulative effects become
increasingly harmful as we age, but they are not caused by age. Eventually, they just take their to11. For example, a person who continually smokes two packs of cig— arettes a day for 25 years or more is likely to develop emphysema or lung cancer when he or she reaches 60 or 70 years of age. Does this mean that emphysema and lung cancer are diseases of old age? Absolutely not. It means that these conditions are more likely to occur in people whose bodies have been abused over a long period of time and, for this reason, are more commonly seen with advanc ing years. If you continually harm your body and fail to respect or cooperate with your healing system, it is a simple fact that, in time, you will most likely become ill. The abuse factor, rather than the age factor, causes the majority of these illnesses. If you carefully examine other major illnesses, including dia betes, heart disease, arthritis, and
cancer,
among others, you will
invariably discover similar underlying factors and mecha at play, factors and mechanisms that are much more related to unhealthy diets, lifestyles, and personal health habits than to old age. So I will repeat myself by stating that old age and illness have nothing to do with each other. As you work with your healing system, remember the impor tance of adopting an attitude similar to the lady in the story with the painful knee. Make use of the power of your mind and your own almost nisms