HUMANS IN CAPTIVITY - WHY WE ARE SO SICK

The stress caused by the mismatch of our environment with our gene code is the root of all chronic illness we see today. A stressor is always defined in a genetically specific way. In other words, things that humans genetically require in terms of fuel, movement, community, sunlight, etc. may in fact be harmful or even deadly to another species. Our genetic blueprint determines what is required to express our health potential, and it is also our genetic blueprint that determines what is stressful for us.

Think about the modern environment and lifestyle we have today. We use an alarm clock to get us out of bed: stress. We eat packaged food for breakfast: stress. We drive to work and back: stress. We sit in a room polluted with florescent lighting: stress. We sit and perform a repetitive job for most of the day: stress. We constantly check Facebook, Twitter and other social networks so we can feel ‘connected’ to other people: stress. We fight traffic to return home: stress. And we zone out and go to bed with the prospect of doing it all over again the next day: stress.

Compare that lifestyle to a hunter-gatherer. They sleep and wake according to when the sun sets and rises. They live in a community that cares for and respects each other. Every day brings different jobs and experiences filled with outdoor adventures, eating a variety of natural foods, exercising in the form of hunting and collecting food, educating the younger generation and playing down by the lake. Sure they have their share of stressful events – falling down a cliff, being chased by animals and constantly having to find new food supplies. However, these stressors are acute stressors that only last for a small amount of time, unlike the chronic stressors we face today.

We can categorize the modern stressors that arise from mismatching our environment with our genes as dietary stressors, physical stressors and emotional stressors. The amazing thing is that we have devised no way of differentiating between these different types of stress. Your physiology doesn’t care if you have eaten a hamburger full of toxins and devoid of nutrients, just had a car accident, are going through a divorce or even if you win $500 on a scratchy. Internally, it all ends up as a stress!