Health is Wealth: Redefining Diseases

Health is Wealth is a book written by Dr.Louis Ignarro, a Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Dr. Andrew Myers.

The book redefined diseases and linked the cost of disease or the wealth we could have if we take care of our health through good nutrition and exercise.

New Concept of Health

Health is Wealth introduced the concept of health is like an investment account. When we are in perfect health, vitality and getting all the power nutrients to the body cells so that they function at their best, the account is 100%.

If we suffer deficiency of key nutrients, it is like withdrawing money from the account. At first, the account has a lot of money, just like when we are young. So, small withdrawal won’t make a difference. Overtime, the account imbalance starts to take a hit. We can’t pay our bills and the body vitality becomes deficit and diseases develop.

The concept extends to 2 types of accounts; BioDebt and BioWealth.

BioDebt is the state of nutritional deficiency that drains your wellness account

BioWealth is the state of nutritional abundance that leads to optimal body function

The book covered the benefits of good health as:

Lower health care cost due to less medical treatment needed

Lower drug cost. Fewer drugs is needed to treat when illness developed

Lower insurance cost. Less insurance loading with less illness

Greater productivity. Less medical leave or down time and earning lost due to illness.

There are detail examples in the book of health care cost comparison between taking care of our health and ignoring it. The cost savings when deposited in a fixed account earning interest can create some wealth over time.

Redefining the meaning of diseases

Our body is a finely tuned system that can function optimally when it has proper exercise, proper nutrition and proper rest. Missing any of these will disrupt the self-regulated feedback mechanism and imbalance occurs. This is what we commonly know as being sick.

Therefore, heart disease is actually a cardiovascular dysfunction, diabetes is a blood sugar regulation dysfunction and obesity is a metabolic dysfunction.

Our current modern lifestyle of high stress, sleep deprived, nutritionally deficient, lack of exercise is creating Nutrient Deficiency Syndrome. This is the root cause of most diseases you can think of.

In the modern, Western medicine, doctors prescribe drugs for every disease that are diagnosed. And we tend to have the attitude that as long as I take this medicine, I am fine. We are not proactive towards our own bodies anymore.

The common attitude is:

We will invariably develop some disease someday, so, we hope for the best and wait to get sick.

Go to the doctor and get medicine to manage the symptoms

Suffer increasing disability and receive intrusive treatment that does not address the underlying cause of the disease.

Actually diseases can be reversed if we restore our wellness account to BioWealth.

Nutrient Deficit Syndromes

The book covered 3 critical Nutrient Deficit Syndromes and the cluster of diseases within the syndrome: