Ian Kennedy
Nutrition is an unavoidable topic today within most complimentary, alternative, integrative, progressive and bioregulatory approaches to health and wellness. There is not a health care practice that you can walk into today and avoid the conversation of diet and nutrition. There is a vast array of information and opinion out there when it comes to nutrition, eating and diet. Minerals, vitamins, whole foods, organic foods, supplements, vegetarian, vegan, fruitarian, intermittent fasting and so on. Nutrition and diet is a multi-billion dollar industry and can be a very deep rabbit hole into which one can fall. An obsessiveness around food and diet can become an disorder all of its own. Personally, I advocate a diet that mirrors that of simians. This is a diet that consist primarily of a wide array of vegetables, fruits, berries, nuts, seeds, some egg, pure water and a little bit of meat once in a while. Our human DNA is 1.24 percent different then that of a chimpanzee. Not much of a difference at all when you think about it. Our anatomy is also very similar. This close resemblance between us is one of the reasons that monkeys and chimpanzees our used in pharmaceutical and other scientific laboratories for experimentation. Chimps and other simians however differ from us in that they possesses five to eight times the physical strength of a human. So, eating like a member of the great apes is not a bad idea and most likely mimics the diet of our ancestors.
Nevertheless, of all the nutrients that are vital to the proper function of the body and the life of a human being, one stands paramount and that is Oxygen. Oxygen is the most critical of nutrients. It is also the only one that we get with every breath we take. Deprived of the next in-breath you and your body fall apart. Today even conventional science suggests that 90% of our body energy comes from oxygen and only 10% comes from food. (https://sciencing.com/hunmans-oxygen-bodies-10018091.html)
This is because of oxygens role in the electron transport chain (ETC), which cannot function without oxygen. The ETC is by far the most efficient method of converting food into ATP, which chemically powers the body. This chain also produces byproducts that are used in other phases of ATP production. All this centers on the availability of electrons and oxygen. We all know that oxygen is critically important for appropriate brain function and though the brain makes up for only 2% of our body weight it consumes 20% of the body’s oxygen. Fact is, the best way to prevent brain deterioration and actually regenerate the brain is through oxygenation that occurs during deep breathing and low-impact exercise. Not diet. Not hormones. Not detoxification. Oxygen is the body’s number one most important nutrient for energy, proper function and regeneration. With little awareness one can see that many who find themselves in declining health have as a component to their deterioration poor sleep, poor posture and ultimately poor breathing.
Posture has much to do with breathing appropriately and many people sit, stand and sleep in unsupportive postures that inhibit correct breathing. Helping others just become more aware of their posture while standing, sitting and laying down will help the body to naturally beath better. It is easy to see why deep breathing is so important and why shallow breathing is so detrimental to the system when we consider the important of oxygen and its role in energy production and brain function. Those who suffer with fatigue, brain fog and general weakness you will find are also poor breathers. Another advantage to breathing properly and deliberately oxygenating the body is that cancer cells, fungi, and anaerobic bacteria thrive in an oxygen-absent or low oxygen environment, while cancer cells, fungi, and anaerobic bacteria do not survive an oxygen-rich environment.
For thousands of years great mystics, yogis, buddhas and spiritual practitioners have advocated conscience breathing techniques that range in results from increasing the heat within the body to stimulating the immune system and reaching higher states of awareness. Breathing and breath control practices have advantages and offers abilities to the adherent that not only offer immense health benefits but also the possibility of reaching deeper states of consciousness and being.
Ian Kennedy, True Wellness