The Illusion of Health

I ran into an old friend recently.  Within the context of catching up on the past several years, I mentioned my work in developing nutritional assessments and restorative products.  I went on to share with him that my research with over 500 accomplished—yet nutritionally-deficient—athletes had led me to the conclusion that most people aren’t fundamentally healthy, even if they exercise, eat well, and take nutritional supplements. 

I then proceeded to ask him about his current level of health and well-being. He admitted to struggling with ongoing bouts of low energy; and to losing the fight against the 20 extra pounds he had been carrying—for quite some time.  While his small business was growing, he wasn’t deriving that much personal satisfaction from his success and he had completely lost interest in doing triathlons because he was performing so poorly. 

He said these concerns had recently prompted him to spend $2000 for an executive health evaluation. In addition to a through physical exam, he had extensive blood work, an EKG, and body fat analysis done.  And after completing his full-day work-up, he was happy to report that nothing was wrong—his doctor said that despite being a few pounds overweight, he was perfectly healthy.