Nutrition, Movement, Connection and Rest constitute the foundation of health and healing
By Dr. Anoop Kumar, M.D.
Every broker wants their client to have a health insurance plan that is ideal for them. Every broker wants to make sure their client is taken care of in their time of greatest need. When people come to me in the ER in their time of greatest need, I too hope that they have whatever support they need to get through that difficult time. But what about the other side of the equation? What about those times when a person may not be sick or diseased, but is still not functioning optimally and not enjoying their lives with as much ease, capacity, or power as is possible? This too is a function of their health.
We often think about health only when it’s not there. But those of us who take responsibility for the health of others, including clinicians, brokers, and managers in healthcare, also have a tremendous opportunity to show people that health is something that is always here and something that we can always work with to achieve great things in our lives.
Health, after all, is a modification of the word heal, and the word heal itself is derived from the word whole. In other words, health is wholeness and completeness. So, if we truly understand what health means, there would be nothing more to say. It is whole and complete in itself. Today, however, we see health as something fractional, something to be addressed only at a certain time, and something that gets us back to a baseline state of function. In fact, health is much more.
Health is the expression of human potential. Whatever you are capable of is represented by the word health. We too rarely ask the questions, “What is possible? What is my capacity? What is my potential? How do I unleash this?” Cultures around the world have been asking and answering this question for millennia. While the details of how we address this question may change over time, the fundamentals have not changed.
If we want a plant to grow, we must give it water, nutrients in the soil, and sunlight. No amount of complementary additives can replace these fundamental engines that drive the growth of the plant.
Similarly, when it comes to human sustenance and growth, there are Four Engines that are critical.
These are
- Nutrition
- Movement
- Connection
- Rest
By convention, these are fundamental. No amount of complementary treatment can replace these, and that includes antibiotics, IV medications, surgery, and CT scans — all of which I use in good measure for my patients in the ER. All of these may be necessary in certain situations as a complement to the Four Engines of health and healing, but none can replace them.
Yet, today, we have come to believe that modern medicine is conventional medicine, while we believe that which is fundamental and has been so by convention for millennia is complementary. Our understanding of conventional and complementary medicine is backwards, and this is limiting the health of ourselves, our families, and our clients and their families.
Let’s set the story straight. Modern medicine has a critical role in our society, but first and foremost, it is complementary medicine. It is not primary medicine. It is not conventional medicine. When we see this clearly, the mind starts to open up and ask, “What is conventional medicine, then? What should I be doing?” This is the dawn of a new possibility.
The Four Engines of Nutrition, Movement, Connection and Rest effectively constitute the magic pill that our society has been looking for. Put simply, when people activate and rev one or more of these engines, they heal. I have interviewed dozens of people who have healed from apparently incurable conditions, including advanced cancer, severe heart disease, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, schizophrenia, and more, by revving these engines. What I’ve discovered in interviewing these people is that these examples are not nearly as rare as we may think. For every person who is willing to tell their story on a podcast, it’s likely that there are at least dozens of others who do not want to share publicly. Even the people that I spoke with were sometimes reluctant to share their stories because the standard response is often that it’s not possible or logical, so it must not be true.
It’s not only the people who have experienced healing themselves who are reluctant to share their stories. The physicians of most of these people who healed did not write up the case studies in the medical literature. In some cases, the interviewees were explicitly told that their stories would not be written up because others may choose to change their treatment plan based on the stories. It’s understandable that we physicians would not want other people to make a choice that may not work for them. At the same time, we should not withhold critical information about what is possible from others. We have to put the information out there responsibly and allow others to know what is possible and make their own choices.
I believe that if we talked about these stories of healing more and researched them more, then the very idea that any disease is incurable would disappear. We know today that a majority of conditions are linked to inflammation. We also know there is a direct link between the food we eat, how we move, our relationships, our sleep, and inflammation and its effects on the body. In other words, attending to Nutrition, Movement, Connection and Rest heals inflammation in the body, shifts the hormones and neurotransmitters in the body, and ultimately facilitates healing and changes our state of health.
The two most common fatal diseases in the United States are heart disease and cancer, both of which are linked to inflammation. The most common non-fatal conditions, including hypertension and Type 2 diabetes, are also linked to inflammation. I believe that 50% or more of the conditions in this country would be significantly improved, if not completely eliminated, if we attended to these Four Engines. This is critical for your clients to know.
There are many wellness programs today that emphasize aspects of healing and wellness. But few get straight to the point with a concise and comprehensive picture, so let me say it here. Nutrition, Movement, Connection and Rest constitute the foundation of health and healing. This is primary medicine. This is conventional medicine. And its power is in your hands and the hands of your clients. Everything else has its place as complementary medicine, including my work in the ER.
What is especially heartening and beautiful is that these Four Engines are not just about wellness or prevention, as is commonly thought. People have used these to reverse acute disease, reverse chronic disease, improve their fitness, and more. Furthermore, the exact same practices also help to develop insight and mental clarity. The Four Engines are not just a map for prevention or a map for general well-being, but a meta-map that embraces the entire trajectory of life in its purview.
So, the next time you meet your client, in addition to showing them the best insurance plan that can help them in their time of need, teach them how they can begin to take their life to the next level right now. It’s not about making a complete overhaul or being perfect; it’s simply about knowing which steps to take in the right direction. As they do this, they will indeed realize that health is something more than they thought. They will realize health as the expression of their potential.
Dr. Anoop Kumar, M.D. is an emergency physician. He is co-founder and CEO of Health Revolution and co-creator of Health Jumpstart.
“As an ER doctor for more than 15 years, I have witnessed health care problems most can’t bear to imagine. What I came to discover in being with those who are suffering is an immutable truth: There is an emergency in health care that no one is talking about…We don’t fully know what health is. “As a medical student, I had a near-death experience that changed the way I saw health forever. It opened me to a field of infinite potential where I ran into the limits of my own medical training. I saw a vast terrain with multi-directional pathways that support healing. My purpose is now to guide people along these paths so they can experience what health truly means.”
Contact: healthrevolution.org
Link to course: https://healthrevolution.org/healthisinfinitepotential
Link to podcast: https://www.youtube.com/c/HealingIsPossiblechannel