An amazing organic machine
Your body is an organic machine. Everything you do to it:
- what foods do you eat
- how much and how well do you move
- how much sleep it gets, quantity and quality
- the emotions that you engage in
All these are part of the great organic chemistry that happens inside. When you are angry, your body feels a different way. You feel the rage heat up inside you and it pours out of you as expletives at the jackass who cut you off on the road. Every emotion, every feeling, every thought, every arising has a longer tail. Especially because we indulge in them and let them.
Food and activity have a direct response from the body as well. You eat poor foods, and your body doesn't have the highest quality ingredients to do the chemical processes inside. It generates more gunk and goop, which need to be cleared out. But since you aren't doing the actions required for that, the body figures out a way around it as well.
Parallels
The parallels between how humans behave on the Earth and how the body behaves are funnily similar. You have a factory that focuses on "cheapest ingredients" and it produces a ton of waste. Since you want to maximise the money, you dispose of the waste by dumping it into a river or whatever. It is not your problem anymore but it is a problem nonetheless.
The crap you do to your body produces more crap. When you don't do enough to undo it, when you don't use the highest quality labour, or pay them well enough, or treat them well enough, or give them the weekends off and however you wanna extend the analogy - you are thinking short-term.
Sudden
Where do these sudden heart attacks come from? The human body is complex and science has good models and explanations of how it works but is nowhere close to a complete working model. That said, a good chunk of the fundamentals are known. You don't need to worry about this supplement or that pill yet - start with the fundamentals.
The input to the system has been sub-par for a LONG time and you haven't paid enough attention to the subtle signals that the body has been sending you. And it tips over some day.
What signals? For example,
- headaches and migraines
- poor pooping
- not sleeping enough
- fatigue
- mood swings
- muscle and joint aches and pains
- brain getting slower and fuzzier
- skin looking poorer
and 100s of other things that we tend to dismiss.
Heart attacks, as they get your attention, are an accumulation of plaque formation over years of poor habits and a lot of things going wrong in the system. Hypertension is nothing but your blood vessels becoming more rigid because you are being an ass, and the heart needs to pump faster. And it is a vicious cycle.
Pay attention. Listen!
You can start by paying more attention to your body.
You don't need to get caught up in the wearable craze and get the latest 17 different gadgets that track everything. While they are useful, the first step is for you to start paying attention to yourself.
Are you feeling good when you wake up?
Are your emotions stable and/or more positive?
Is your skin looking better, or is it getting duller? Do you find yourself scratching a significant amount of time?
Are you looking fatigued?
EVERYTHING that your body is doing is a signal. From the gross to the subtle, it is a signal.
Let's take another example - barefoot running. When I run barefoot, I am forced into running efficiently. Why? Because any poor technique will immediately result in pain and my body will correct itself or the pain makes me stop running. But with the stupid shoes we all wear, the cushioning impairs this feedback and so you think all is well.
All is not well.
Shoes or pills are dampening the signal and distorting it. They are not a true fix. They are a necessary tool when things get terrible. Not everyone is made for barefoot running because you've spent many decades ruining your foot (and up the chain as well.) Likewise, you might need pills to correct/stabilise a condition. And that's fine. It is what it is.
But don't expect that to be the solution.
The solution is paying attention and listening to your body.
The solution is for you to take control.
The solution is for you to become a self-experiment artist.
Yes, you can pay me a lot of money for me to tell you what to do. And yes, you will see results. And that's ample for most people.
But I think, like personal finances and family relationships, these are things that you need to put a lot of time and effort in. In addition to having expert guidance.
Your turn
What is your body telling you?
Start a simple daily log. Jot down various signals you are getting.
A sugar craving at 10 am - is a signal.
Stiff lower back when you get up after driving to work - it is a signal.
Don't diagnose it. Don't try to get to a solution.
Start with listening!