Taking Care of Your Body for Dummies

April 13th, 2010 - I recently started an online class called the Stress Owner's Manual. It got me thinking of all the for 'Dummies' books that are available for teaching everything from your computer, to baking, to plumbing, they even have one for googling. So why not a book for taking care of your body. I know what you are thinking, it should be common sense and a yearly visit to the doctor. But what I am talking about is, what if before you mis-treat your body, there would be a sign that lights up on your forehead that says, do this now and you will have arthritis when you are 40. Eat this now and you will heart disease at 50. Or maybe something that says you are no longer a ten when it comes to your health you are sliding towards an eight, however if you do x,y, and z you can return to a 9 plus.

When you are a kid, you have no concept that the activities we are involved in, or the food we eat, will ultimately cause you endless pain and ruin your health. Seems like a conflict that you should live and enjoy life, but don't do too much or you will pay the piper, sooner than you need to. Case in point...when I was a kid I used to dance. I took tap, ballet and toe. As an adult I have very bad knees. Why? Well my doctor's brilliant answer was because I did toe dancing. "Your knees where not made for that". Really, than why do we have something called toe dancing. And why didn't it wreck my toes, instead of my knees. Duh, it is called TOE dancing, not knee danceing. What exactly were my knees made for?? Or when after 30 years of working on a key board, I developed carple tunnel syndrome, my doctor simply said, "your wrists were not made for repetitive motion". Ok, than how would we be using those PC's or playing tennis, or knitting, etc. What exactly were the wrists made for? Answer, "to hold your hands in place", which by the way were not made for knuckle cracking. And just so you know, You eyes were not made for seeing in a dark room watching TV. Your ears were not made for listening to music so loud it can shatter glass. Your skin on your face was not made to rub hard, lest you want many a wrinkle, and your feet were not made for pointy shoes, or you will develop bunions, corns and the like. In a nutshell we are given a perfect body and it could remain perfect if you don't use it too much. Ofcourse, there is nothing that tells you what is too much, until after the damage is done....Hence why we need a 'body for dummies' book. And don't even get me started on food, and what you can eat, should eat, and never eat. Ofcourse, it changes monthly so what used to be good for you last month is sure to cause cancer this month, and what you gave up years ago because it was so bad for you turns out to really be good for you. All I know is whatever tastes really, really, good, is probably really, really, bad for you.

Sometimes I am absolutly puzzled. Kind of like the chicken and the egg and which came first. Do our bodies hurt because we are aging, or do our bodies hurt because we abuse them. And if we quit abusing them, will we not age, or will we age anyway and thus our bodies will probably hurt. It makes my head hurt just thinking about it, which by the way, in case you are wondering your head was not made for standing on it, spinning on it, or banging it against another person's head. As for me, I am going to comb all the book stores looking for a book on 'bodies for dummies'.