Hildreth on Health: We need to learn how to survive being alive

As we all slowly move into our 60s and 70s, most of us have some illness but only a portion of us will express sickness along the way.

Many physicians see a lot of patients who show illness, but only a few who express or portray sickness.

As expressed in a little booklet by Dr. Donald Dudley, for centuries, patient and physicians alike have attributed accidents or illnesses to bad luck or bad timing, or carelessness or an act of God.

You have the flu because you caught a virus. You inherited your diabetes or your weak heart from your mother or your father or you lost control of your car because the road was slippery.

Many of us see neighbors or close friends spend half their time running from doctor to doctor, week or month after month. Is their faith in hoping to find one doctor that is smarter than another rather than having faith in themselves and the doctor they have chosen?

Consider this startling fact. Again, and I extract from the same little booklet, medical records indicate 70 percent of those medical treatments and surgical procedures are administered to only 30 percent of us.

To be sure most of us are exposed to the same hazards of virus, bad roads and stomach acids but only about one in three of us actually go to bed with the flu, skid off the highway, or develop a stomach ulcer when such hazards present themselves.

The other two, even though subjected to the same risk, stay healthy.

We all believe in something beneficial to our health or not beneficial to our health. As human beings we are incredibly complex with an endless stream of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs that must be satisfied.

It is impossible for us to go from one minute to the next wondering if what I do every minute is going to make me sick or well.

We may or may not realize it, but a deep-seeded love for ourselves and everything around us including the bugs, the viruses, and other good or bad challenges, is what keeps our immune system strong and all of internal organs working in harmony.

Love and confidence within ourselves is the key.

While preparing this article, I ran across this picture of Linda, my wife, which was taken in the spur of a moment on a large Iowa farm a couple of years ago.

I doubt if it even crossed her mind the moment she picked up this little guy whether he or she might give her something that would make her ill.

I rather guess she did it because at that moment she had the need to express a feeling of love.

By the way, within this large complex, there are probably two or three thousand of these little guys all squealing and running to and fro. She picked up two or three before this little one.

They all made such a fuss that she put them down. The moment she picked up this little one, he or she simply cuddled up to her, putting his little head against her chest.

Why, we will never know, but it was an expression of love that was needed by both at that time.

Now, that could have been a pig, it could have been a puppy, it could have been a kitten, or it could have been a flower.

The important part of this is that we all must express the love that is in us from time to time to maintain good physical and mental health.

There is another excellent little book that I have enjoyed and have thought of from time to time when treating patients over the past 50-plus years.

It expresses more meaning to me now than 40 years ago possibly because I am in contact with more patients closer to my age now than before.

Most of us have some ongoing illness but few of us are expressing a sickness. Just remember to get a good physical from a physician that will look beyond just the laboratory studies and will take time to look, examine and talk to you about your concerns.

Ask questions and understand that changes are taking place in your body.

What deficiencies or alterations that possibly have taken place over the past few years in your body could be corrected or supported without synthetic drugs?

This may require physical adjustments such as exercise, nutritional changes, weight changes, and a host of others, or it could be mental or emotional changes such as relationships with your family, husband or wife, neighbors, or whoever may need to be addressed.

Last, and possibly the most important, is your inner spiritual realm. Are you happy? Do you love yourself?

If not, this will all be reflected through physical functions particularly in areas where time and age have already influenced function.

Love and be happy with yourself. Know and understand weaknesses that are taking place with age.

Correct or support that which you can do or have done naturally and use crutches in the form of drugs to support that which is showing failure.

Just remember that there are no synthetic drugs used that don’t have side effects.

You can not support one system in an artificial way without altering or influencing another system of the body. Talk to your doctor about your concerns.

Love all parts of you and age gracefully.

Contact Green Valley Dr. DeWall Hildreth at (520) 625-1101 or cnhcgv@ yahoo.com . His column appears biweekly in the Green Valley News.