I've been enjoying historical work on health. It seems there has been an age old difficulty in taking a lot of the responsibility for our own health upon ourselves. Much of our unhealthy habitual problems are derived from not trusting in the inner speaking but believing fads and diet or exercise trends from the latest experts more.
The surest road to health, say what they will,
Is never to suppose we shall be ill.
Most of those evils we poor mortals know
From doctors and imagination flow.
-Charles Churchill
A bad cold wouldn't be so annoying if it weren't for the advice of our friends.
-Kin Hubbard
There are some remedies worse than the disease.
-Publilius Syrus
Many times we need to listen to the counsel of educated persons, but when we are not believing and not training ourselves to listen to that inner speaking then we cheat ourselves of more than health when all we do is outwardly obey the outward voices. We need to realize that we are housed in our own bodies and, for the most part, we need to take the responsibility of making it a safe, happy and efficient HOME. Without feeling a sense of responsibility of your own vessel, then you will either be a nervous wreck, seeking health in the vanity of the mind or letting everything go and be startled awake one day and find you've been sharing your home (your body) with all kinds of other varmints because you haven't taken the time to maintain it as your home.
Each patient carries his own doctor inside him. They come to us now knowing this truth. We are at our best when they give the doctor who resides within each patient a chance to go to work.
-Albert Schweitzer
We can make laws for ourselves that we have learned from others, but perhaps we need to learn these principals of good health and then closely follow that little inner voice that might say, "Don't eat that doughnut now. Eat an apple instead." Or, "Don't worry so much about how fat you feel you look. Just enjoy this moment." It is not the outer voice but the inner.
Our God created our nature in the midst of a realm of nature. I believe that it is within this realm that we can find some insight into (not the fountain of youth or the Garden of Eden with immortality) but into who we are and who we are supposed to be.
Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease.
-Hippocrates
We need to get out of our book-wormish, computer-geekish, cubicalistic life and take a walk (without a chatty friend or a cell phone - not even in your pocket), going barefoot and just look at how big the sky is and examine the intricacies of a leaf. Then listen to what is being said inside.
Fresh air impoverishes the doctor.
-Danish Proverb
We are what we eat. Writers and thinkers of an older era, those with thoughtful reflections seem to come together on this point. It seems for centuries men have been running to doctors to cure them of ailments that could have been avoided if practice could have been made to listen deep within. We eat not only food ideas. Who is telling you you are fat and lazy, unhealthy and ugly, slow and tired, or that you hurt too much to enjoy right now? We need to be our own doctor by changing what we eat as soul food. Choose your doctors wisely in this department, for what they say will effect every part of your being.
The doctor of the future will give no medicines, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the causes and prevention of disease.
-Thomas Edison
We might do well to just be more simple with everything. Not as a fad. No, as a way to listen to your inner voice. Push out the outer speaking that is screaming negative words dressed in striking patterns and flavorful confections and injecting you with concepts that will dull that inner voice that might say, "I am happy with what I have. Really. Look, here is where I am truly comfortable. Here, where I am, not there, not in that mansion." It is an age old problem of our character defect to desire more that what we have, be where we are not and be unhappy with who we are. When we listen to that inner voice again we might be able to hear something more positive. To hear it we need to just be simple.
Here is a quote from Aulus Cornelius Celsus who lived during the luxurious opulence of the Roman society around the time of Christ. His work was to record medical practices, diet for health, and surgical procedures in an ancient Roman encyclopedia, much of which no longer exists. Listen to how he is turning us to the simple things reflective of the natural rhythms, an environment we were created us to be in.
Live in rooms full of light
Avoid heavy foodBe moderate in the drinking of wineTake massage, baths, exercise, and gymnasticsFight insomnia with gentle rocking or the sound of running waterChange surroundings and take long journeysStrictly avoid frightening ideasIndulge in cheerful conversation and amusementsListen to music.
-A. Cornelius Celsus
But, well, to really be serious about anything healthy for ourselves, we need to be turned away from the sickness of ourselves, and that is the strongest point that I want to say right now.
In order to change we must be sick and tired of being sick and tired.
-Author Unknown
This post is more or less an exploration or ongoing research post. I want to answer some basic questions, not on caffeine, but specifically on coffee. Coffee, not tea, not yerba mate, not chocolate, not energy drinks or pills, but coffee alone has been a struggling point with me for many years. Why does coffee seem to help my mood, improve my breathing, help me concentrate and focus and improve my activity level, only to later have me grouchy and even depressed, itchy and/or have stomach aches, make me jittery, irritable and scrambled emotionally inside and make me want to take a good nap? 
