Some of the chemical components of the heart are calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, and potassium. Heart disease became the number one killer in the 20th century, only to be eclipsed by cancer in the first part of the 21st century.

Bones? They are made up of, among other things, calcium, copper, fluorine, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, silicon. We ingest more calcium than any other country in the world, yet we have the worst osteoporosis.

Some of the chemical components of the bowel are calcium, chlorine, fluorine, iodine, iron, potassium, sodium. Over the counter remedies for digestive complaints are one of the top sellers in our country.

Where do these basic components of our human body come from? The soil. Humans obtain it by ingesting either the plants that grow on the soil (which alter the minerals to a more bio-available state), or animals that have eaten the plants. If these nutrients are not available in the food supply, then they are not available to your body and all its vital organs. When deprived of these necessary components, one or more, the tissues and cells are less healthy and more susceptible to disease. An example would be a deficiency of potassium, which is necessary for regulating the heartbeat, resulting in tachycardia (a racing of the heart).

Now, let’s proceed with some related information. First, our food is more often than not grown on soils depleted of their nutrients. By the 1930′s, most of the best, most nutrient dense and life sustaining soils in America had been used up, leaving us with mineral deficient crops of all kinds, for humans and animals. Coincidentally, the incidence of chronic degenerative diseases like arthritis, diabetes, cancer, lupus, osteoporosis, as well as birth defects – began to escalate at the same time.

Studies from many universities have been making the connection between the health of the soil and the health of those living off of it for decades; most notably the works of William Albrecht at the University of Missouri, as well as the studies of one of my personal favorites, Weston Price. So today, if you have arthritis pain, what does this tell you? A Tylenol deficiency? or a biochemical imbalance or lack? Is osteoporosis, which is rampant, a Fosamax deficiency? Maybe the more enlightened will purchase and take Calcium in some form, like candy

calcium chews. But is this the solution?

The fact that our human, physical lives are integrally connected with the life of the land is a fact that appears to be lost in our every day deliberations.

Somehow or other, somewhere along the evolutionary path of our species, we have come to believe that health is found in a bottle, a Dr’s office, a vaccine -some external source somewhere supplying something that we just know will make all the difference. We have forgotten what real health is and what it takes to have it. We eat foods that barely fit the definition, and then pop vitamins in an attempt to make up the difference, demonstrating that many of us do not really understand what the difference is. Don’t get me wrong: taking vitamins is better than not, but we should be getting them from our food, not re-purchased from some of the very industries responsible for their removal is the first place. (Coca Cola now manufactures and sells co enzyme Q 10, along with other supplements.)

And currently, in our WNY community, we are experiencing locally a microcosm of what is occurring nationally. Medicaid costs have risen, and continue to escalate to the point where other public services are needed to be sacrificed just to cover the cost. Our disease management system just doesn’t work when it comes to actually creating optimal health. Government corruption aside, our societies reliance on the modern practice of medicine to solve our ever increasing health issues is breaking us financially.

And this is exactly what you’d expect of any wrong solution to a problem. Also accompanying the continuous pursuit of unworkable solutions is the deteriorating morale and mental health of those pursuing it. The frustration, anger, and fear mount each time we are forced to face yet another worsening of the health statistic in our culture. Most recently is the news that obesity related illness is expected to begin lowering the life expectancy in our country. We already rank as one of the lowest of the industrialized world. (25th last I heard). Hope is rapidly fading that this statistic will be significantly reversed anytime in the near future.

But sometimes crisis can be a great eye opener. As conventional healthcare moves beyond the reach of your average citizen, maybe, if nothing else and out of an instinct to survive, will come a renaissance in how we view and approach the health of our citizens.

We have been misled and miseducated on many levels and for many years. For optimal health we need sunshine, fresh, clean air and water, exercise, nutrient dense foods in sufficient quantity (but no more than that), and hope. This is what life on this planet has evolved on, and try as they will, industry has yet to come up with any viable substitutes to sell to us through Medicaid or drugstores. To obtain these we need to first of all understand and become better educated in how this is true and necessary. Then we need to make them our priorities, like our lives depend on it. Because they do. We need to demand of the market place that industry conduct itself in such a way as to not endanger the quality of the environment (air, water, earth). We need to demand of the food producers a naturally nutrient dense food product that sustains life, and make that more of a priority by seeking out and purchasing it. We need to prioritize the management of our stress levels, making sure that we get the exercise ( a great stress reducer) and

down timewe need for a balanced and healthier life.

And we need to know the connection between our choices and our health, because this puts us in control and gives us hope for a better outcome.

I want to give you an example of a whole country and culture that successfully changed their approach to nutrition and health care and set an example for all communities facing similar dilemmas.. The country is Cuba. A number of years ago, when the Soviet Union broke up, Cuba found (due to the embargo) that they could no longer obtain two essential life sustaining items: agricultural fertilizers/pesticides and western medicines. Facing this crisis, they realized they now needed to become totally self-sufficient when it came to both their food production and their medicine.

The leaders in agriculture and health care did their research, put their heads together and concluded that the health and nourishment of their nation would have to go back to being dependent on the quality of their soil, as the market for

other avenueswas now closed to them. They started a changeover to organic agriculture. The concentration became soil improvement, composting, safer and better nutrition. At the same time they revived the use of medicinal plants and began cultivating and growing the medicines used in their culture for centuries.

What they have achieved is monumental and sets an example for the rest of us. They are a much healthier, happier, and self sufficient nation than they were prior to this change. They’ve demonstrated for all of us the efficaciousness of organic farming methods, as opposed to the polluting industrial methods typical of western culture. And they’ve improved the health of all Cubans by switching their focus to the aforementioned basics and away from the drugging of symptoms method we are still pursuing. What was predicted to be the cataclysmic end of a nation became instead a nation reborn in the tradition of their ancestors, yet with all of the intelligence of the 21st century.

Though we are certainly not a duplication of Cuba’s struggles, we have our own version of things gone terribly wrong by going down a wrong path. And like Cuba, maybe we can take what appears to be a cataclysmic set of circumstances and use them to revisit the subject of optimal health; what it really is, and what it takes to achieve it.

Don’t wait for the Erie County Legislature to act. You know what you know despite what the rest of the population may be doing. Pass on your knowledge and act in accordance with what you know to be true. This has more impact than you might think There is a famous quote by anthropologist Margaret Mead:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.