An excerpt from the popular book by Albert Zehr, "Help Yourself Health Care." This issue: Listening to your body. (Chapter 7)

A Sense of Where You Are
As we have lost the sense of personal responsibility for our own health, we have also lost a clear sense of our body. Our body has become like a machine to us. We use it for our purposes with little sensitivity to its needs. We supply just enough fuel and maintenance to keep it running, but keep a detached and rather impersonal attitude towards it.

In earlier sections of this book, we talked about food allergy testing. We also covered the matter of responding to our body’s reaction to food, both in content and quantity. We pointed out how we are controlled by taste rather than the body’s deeper indications which inform us of its real needs. These examples focus on the area we refer to here as body talk. Let’s review them briefly, and then go on to see more ways that we can read our body’s desire to communicate.

An allergic reaction occurs when our body’s immune system perceives some element such as a bacteria, virus or toxin to be potentially harmful. It then launches a counterattack, which may evoke a fever, puffy eyes, runny nose, etc. This reaction is certainly the body talking. The question should be “what is the body reacting to and why?” If it is a food allergy, the reaction could be to any number of the various foods being ingested.

The only sure way to really get the message is to avoid specific foods for at least five days and then reintroduce them one at a time. This way of isolating specific foods allows you to receive a clear message, because the reaction can be pinned down to a particular food. If our suspicion is correct, then when we avoid that food, the reaction should no longer occur.

Listening Quietly and Intently
Our bodies could be quite instructive concerning what and how much we should eat. However, this capability tends to be overridden and frustrated starting in early childhood. For example, anything that has a sweet taste is described as “good.” Many of us were taught always to finish everything on our plate.

While this advice was well-intentioned, its subtle result was to teach us to over eat! As children we heard statements such as “No dessert until you finish your meal.” Of course, tradition has taught us that a meal is not complete without dessert. We were also conditioned to see desserts or sweets as a way of rewarding ourselves.

Now, when we indulge, we feel we deserve it, because we completed something difficult and therefore may reward ourselves by eating those chocolates.

What do You Hear?
With such programming, is it any wonder that our body’s digestive system is in chaos and that there is very little chance of us hearing our body talk? If we could retune our hearing, what might we hear our body say concerning our eating? Here are some of the phrases we would probably hear it say: “that’s enough, thanks; please stop; I can’t handle that sugar now; I need hours to digest what I have, before I can properly handle more.”

How often have you felt quite comfortable after eating a nice dinner? Unable to resist the pressure, for whatever reason, you eat pie and ice cream or other dessert. Soon after you feel heavy and sluggish, begin to belch and experience bloating and gas. This is body talk, but still, it seems, we don’t get the message.

The classic breakfast of eggs, bacon, hash browns and butter soaked toast is a sickening blow to a body that has just awakened and is ready to eliminate its accumulated toxic waste. No wonder so many people need half the day to get going! Much more compatible would be a cup of hot water, some fruit, and perhaps some fiber. Try it for a week and see how much happier your body will be.

Responding to Your Body's Requests
Accepting these “requests” and responding to my body has given me almost sixty healthy, trouble-free years, and I anticipate many more. I have come to conclude that if you listen and take care of your body, it will take care of you.

Another area of body talk is learning to recognize and interpret symptoms. A headache, rash, swelling, itching, nausea, pain, redness, bloating, etc., are all attempts by the body to transmit a message.

If we apply the body talk concept, we will not merely settle for some medication to suppress the symptoms, but will take the time and effort to interpret and respond to what our body is trying to tell us.

I share the above to illustrate a number of points. With the constant administration of potentially lethal medications all around us, we have been programmed to believe that the exact amount is very crucial. Because of this, we have become focused on the prescription of experts, but oblivious to the indications of our body.

While certain guidelines may be helpful, in a sense, the amount of supplements one should take is rather a personal and subjective matter. Often my response to the question, “How much?” is rather general, like “Try two to four, and see how your body reacts.” I say this deliberately to steer the person away from dependency on me, and towards hearing his body speaking.

Many nutritional counselors employ a technique referred to as bio-kinesiology, or muscle testing. The person being tested stands with her arm straight out from her body and resists the pressure that the tester will apply. The tester applies pressure to see how much resistance there is. Then a supplement or other element is held in the person’s other hand and is placed against the stomach area. If at that point the extended arm is stronger, the item being tested is considered of positive value. If the person’s arm is weaker, then the item being tested is considered of negative value.

The above method is really a form of listening to the body talk. With practice and sensitivity, I believe that each of us can learn to read our own body’s responses and help ourselves and others.