The Four Pillars of Health - Introduction

The Four Pillars of Health

1. High Quality Nutrition
2. Appropriate Exercise
3. Adequate Rest
4. Positive Mental State

- High Quality Nutrition: Food needs to be nutrient dense. What this means is that foods should be whole and traditionally raised. There is a saying in western nutrition, “Garbage in – Garbage out”. Food is not merely a source of energy. The saying, “You are what you eat” is 100% correct. In a well running human body the entire blood stream is replenished every 120 days, most other cells are replaced every two years, and virtually every cell is replaced every 10 years. In order to replace those cells the body needs building blocks. The large majority of those building blocks come from the proteins (amino acids), fats (essential fatty acids, fatty acids, and cholesterol), vitamins, and minerals we eat.
- Most people in our society won’t put “bad gasoline” in their car, but will put low quality food in their body. What is with that? When we give the body poor quality foods, cells can’t perform up to speed, and the body breaks down. An excellent example of this concerns the used of trans-fatty acids (trans-fats from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils). Fatty acids are used to make up the cell membranes of every cell in the body. These membranes are porous (allowing nutrients in and waste products out). When cell membranes are built using trans-fats they are more porous allowing more substances to enter the cell than would normally be allowed to enter the cell, causing unintended consequences.

- Appropriate exercise: In our society many people live in a more is better attitude. Especially if what we are talking about has a label that is positive. The reality in life is that in order to live healthfully moderation is the key. Not too little, and not too much. This is true for many of the things we consider healthful, water, fiber, antioxidants, and yes even exercise. There are two ways to look at why exercise needs to be moderated.
- In Chinese medicine we say that exercise can help to build Qi (pronounced chee) in the body. This statement is true up to a point, because too much exercise can damage or weaken Qi as well. First let me explain the concept of Qi, and then I will return to how exercise affects Qi. Qi is a relatively complex concept in Chinese culture, for our purposes you can think of Qi as you would think of “life force energy”, but I digress. The easiest way to understand how much exercise may be right for you is relatively easy, but takes a little trial and error. After exercise we typically feel either exhilarated or fatigued. If you feel exhilarated great, that means you are exercising appropriately and are building Qi. However, if after exercise you feel fatigued, you should think about altering your exercise regimen, because that fatigue is a sign of weakening Qi reserves. [Note: When I talk about fatigue I am talking about full body fatigue, not about fatigue in a specific muscle group.]
- The second way we need to think about exercising appropriately concerns how we live over time. It is important to change how we live based on the seasons, where we are in our lifespan, and what may be going on for us at a particular time. Let me talk about each of these three individually.
- In Chinese culture each of the seasons has its own sort of personality. We say that the summer is the most yang time of the year; the time when it is best to be active and gregarious. Conversely the winter is the most Yin time of year; the time when it is best to be quiet and introspective; the time when we should heal and “recharge our batteries” so to speak. The spring and autumn are times of change; in the spring the energy changes from the Yin of winter gradually to the yang of summer; in the autumn the energy changes from the yang of summer to the yin of winter. All of this being said, it is most appropriate to exercise vigorously (ex., running marathons) in the summer; in the autumn it is best to begin to decrease exercise intensity; in the winter it is best to exercise more gently (Qi Gong, Yoga, T’ai Qi, or walking); and in the Spring it is time to start ramping our exercise level back up to the intensity of summer.
- Next it is important to look at exercise over our lifespan. You can view a person’s lifespan as you would the seasons of the year. Birth through puberty is the springtime; post-puberty until “middle age” is the summertime; “middle age” is the autumn; and our elder years can be considered the wintertime of our life. When we look at our lifespan as a flow through the seasons we can extrapolate how to best exercise over our lifespan. If post-puberty until “middle age” is the summertime then that is the best time to be very active (marathon running). If the elder years are equivalent to the wintertime then those years are most appropriate to partake in gentle holistic exercise like, Qi Gong, Yoga, T’ai Qi, or walking.
- Lastly it is important to look at what might be going on for us at a particular point in time. As an example, when we have a cold we want to keep our immune system running at a very high level. During vigorous exercise the immune system is somewhat depressed (esp., if we exercise to the point of fatigue). Therefore during a cold or flu you might take a gentle walk around the block, but not run a marathon.