THROUGHOUT OUR EVOLUTION IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST AND THE FITTEST IN THE FUTURE WILL BE THOSE OF US WHO KNOW HOW TO LOOK AFTER OUR BODIES FOR OPTIMUM HEALTH.
In today’s world, for many of us, health can be a never ending battle at the best of times, never mind a virus pandemic.
What is it that a virus does to the human body?
A virus is a living organism that reproduces inside the cells of living hosts. Unlike most living things, viruses do not have cells that divide; instead, a virus uses the host cell to produce many thousands of identical copies of itself, at an extraordinary rate.
But because a virus contains genes, they are able to mutate and evolve. Over 5,000 species of viruses have been discovered so far!
A virus basically makes the host do what the virus wants it to do not what the host cell should be doing. This means that the host cell stops performing normal bodily functions and performs virus stuff instead. This is a disaster for the host because normal body functions stop which may result in the shutting down of body organs and then death. But don’t despair, in response to being invaded by a virus the body has several defence mechanisms which you will learn about in this book, in the chapter on the immune system.
There was never a truer saying than:
“If you have your health everything else is possible”
This book aims to teach you the basics about how your body works and how you can look after it even when surrounded by invading viruses.
A little about me:
My name is Linda Bostock. I am a qualified Medical Herbalist, having studied at the School of Phytotherapy in East Sussex, England, graduating in 1993. I have spent the last 27 years in my Clinic using plant medicines to help people to both recover from chronic illnesses and also to then maintain their own health by teaching them how to look after themselves for optimum health.
Apart from teaching people how to look after their health, my major passion in life has been walking in the countryside and identifying plants growing in the wild which have medicinal properties. Plant medicine is our most ancient form of healing, the knowledge being passed down from generation to generation. We have evolved alongside plants and share chemistry with the plants so that when our body chemistry goes wrong and we get ill, plants can help us to recover.
I will be your tutor and mentor for the duration of this book
As long as man has existed we have depended on plants for all our daily needs.
• FOOD
• HOUSING
• FUEL
• CLOTHING
• MEDICINES
So lucky us, we are surrounded by everything we need for everyday life, we just need to learn how to identify and use them.
I am going to help you with staying healthy now so you have the best chance of fighting any virus, how to fight the virus and how to stay healthy after a virus induced illness.
To be able to know what to do if you or anyone around you gets sick you need to learn how the human body is put together and how it works.
It sounds difficult and obviously if we went into it in as great detail as the medical students have to then we would all be capable of being brain surgeons, but in this book I am going to introduce you to the basics and to be honest it is a lot less complicated to me than knowing how a car is made and works.
Obviously if you get a major illness, such as cancer, you cannot treat yourself but this book is about maintaining optimum health to give yourself a fighting chance to survive any ill health, including viruses.
This is exciting
YOU are going to be in control of everything that happens to you
YOU are going to know how to get the right food
YOU are going to know how to stay healthy
YOU are going to be able to protect your family
YOU will be fit enough to fight back against the virus menace.
YOUR HEALTH IS NOW YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.
Your own immune system is the MOST POWERFUL defence you have against any virus. Never forget that it is the body that always does the healing and repairing so I always say to people I am helping with their health that, the most important part of healing and maintaining wellbeing is what we do for ourselves to look after this amazing structure we call the body.
Our bodies are basically just walking chemistry. There is a constant balancing act going on in there to maintain the correct balance of our internal body organs. To achieve this we have to provide ourselves with the right ingredients for all these chemical reactions to take place and that means eating and drinking a well balanced diet, exercising, and achieving mental wellbeing so that both body and mind are in a healthy condition to fight back.
OUR BODY, OUR RESPONSIBILITY!