Health is defined simply as a person’s physical or mental condition. Optimal health is a conglomeration of the optimized mind, body, and spirit of the individual. Maybe the best definition of them all was given by Moshe Feldenkrais…

“A healthy person is one who can live fully his unavowed dreams.”

Due to the current human/environment mismatch, we find ourselves in, the advent of social media to polarize opinions on health, and poor education on what it means to be truly human have all led to a place in time where we are more unhealthy than ever. Understanding what target we are actually aiming at through the pursuit of good health can make all the difference in the world.

Aristotle was the first person to really speak about the idea of ‘First Principles’. First Principles are aimed at getting to the elements or origins of an idea or problem. So what are the elemental aspects of health?

The 7 Pillars of Health are as follows; nutrition, hydration, movement, mental health, sleep, spiritual perspective, and relationships. Attempting to create a hierarchy of these principles can help create a catalyzing effect for those who are struggling with health issues, as certain pillars will help knock down dominos in other areas of health. While all the pillars are important, prioritization also creates a road map that can help guide people on the journey to health.

As difficult as it is to do, here is my attempt at a prioritized list: relationships, movement, nutrition, hydration, spiritual, mental health, sleep.

Relationships: even though this is at the top of the list, I won’t go into too much advice-giving on this one. Mainly due to the fact that this is a bit out of my realm or scope. What I can tell you is that research shows that non-familial relationships are one of the most crucial factors in overall health and longevity. While the family is critical, social bonds formed outside the home bring with them a different set of health improving factors.

Movement: even though this seems to be a biased approach to prioritization, with this basically being my wheelhouse. That being said movement is akin to life, it is part of the definition of what it means to live. From the trillions of cells that make up our bodies to the blood moving through our veins, the air circulating in and out of our lungs, to our entire body bending to the will of our nervous system to accomplish almost any movement imaginable. Movement is not exercise, exercise falls under the umbrella of movement. We have bastardized our relationship with all of the pillars of health, but none have become so disjointed as our relationship with movement. To be able to move in all ranges of motion, with full control, in a pain-free manner is almost unheard of nowadays. Movement perfection is not the goal, but to achieve a positive relationship with the movement we have to actively engage. Just as with any relationship, it takes work. In past centuries we did not have to make the conscious choice to keep our movement vocabulary up to snuff, because our survival depended on it. For more tips on how to foster this relationship, I will recommend this amazing book, The Age of Movement: Time Keeps on Moving and So Should You, give it five stars.

Nutrition: Besides spirituality, nutrition may be one of the more divisive topics on this list. In our current, 140-character, news-blurb crazed society, people tend to be very dogmatic about their nutrition or diet. Diet, defined, is literally what we eat, not a fad-ish plan aimed at weight loss, cleansing, or building muscle. Therefore diet should be a very easily defined subject for humans. Regardless of your belief systems, which often cloud the health discussion, humans were designed to be omnivores. Time and time again, research from both anthropological data and modern-day epidemiological studies shows that humans operate best on vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts, and meat. If you want to call this the ‘Paleo Diet’, that is your prerogative. Realize that for millennia this is simply what our ancestors ate. There are definitely geographic and ethnographic differences in diet, that can have some ripple effects through the genetic course of time, but by in large we KNOW what we should eat, DOING so is another issue altogether.

Hydration: Many mammals sweat, but humans have optimized this function to allow them to cool themselves down while performing longer bouts of endurance. The proposed drive evolutionary reason behind our mastery of endurance is still somewhat up for debate. In order to keep our body working as it is designed humans require not only water, but minerals within the water to maintain homeostasis. The amount of water has been debated for decades now, but we can assume for most people that half your body weight in ounces will suffice, and if you are exercising at a moderate to intense level a few times a week you may need some extra water and electrolytes thrown in. We will cover water quality in another article soon.

Spiritual: As this tends to be the one area that supersedes diet for the hottest button item on the list, all I will say is this. Regardless of location, isolation, and level of advancement, every group of humans throughout the history of humans has had some sort of belief system that extended beyond the known landscape of our world. This can be tied to a sense of purpose or something to live for, no matter what makes it important for health, the time has proven that it is an extricable portion of human health.

Mental Health: The increased prevalence of suicide over just the last decade is a very unnerving matter to dive into. 132 suicides occur daily in the U.S., it is the number one cause of death for people between the age of 12-and 19, and the overall rate has increased by 33% since 1999 (CDC.gov). I will not try to theorize why mental health is plummeting, but it is common sense that things such as social media, more social disconnect, and overall declining health definitely don’t help the situation. Also, the standard medical model is not helping much, by applying patchwork, and sometimes even more harmful, fixes in the form of overprescribing of anti-depressants and anxiolytics, thereby compounding other health issues in the wake of simply suppressing symptoms. This is a tough area to make a change in, but I truly believe, and date would suggest, that much of our internal physiology is leading the way in our psychologic framework. So maybe the focus on psychiatry and psychology should be steered more towards a functional medicine or holistic route rather than such a reductionist approach to mental health, which is just one aspect of human health.

Sleep: Probably the most hyped area of health, as of late. Sleep is vitally important to our health. If nature is going to program us to shut down and become vulnerable for multiple hours on end, it must be relevant in our health journey. The term ‘sleep hygiene refers to the tactics surrounding one’s sleep habits. Such as cooling the room down, blacking out all light, removing electronics, and assuring you get on average 6-8 hours per night. While I whole-heartedly agree with all of these strategies, what we do from the time we get up until we go to sleep is probably more important. Getting yourself into some early morning sunlight, not overconsuming caffeine, not drinking alcohol or eating 3-4 hours before bed, and exercising are all far more important to set yourself up for a great night’s sleep. This is the reason I put to sleep last. Not because it is the least important, instead I think that if you knock down the other dominoes of health throughout your day you will end up hitting the pillow in the best state possible to rest appropriately.

There you have it, while each of the 7 Pillars could be devoted to a book by itself, which there are many, this gets us started down the path to understanding. And as Einstein said…

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”