"Alison Rose Levy" - What You Need to Survive in an Age of Crisis
March 22, 2011 March 22, 2011
In this special blog, I'll share with you what my 30-year survey of the most powerful, little known and guaranteed health interventions has revealed.
There is no pill you can swallow, food you can buy, nor gizmo that confers complete protection from pervasive toxicity, skewed societal consensus or invisible radiation. There's no place you can go, nowhere you can hide and no authority -- scientific, medical or spiritual -- who can help you to escape what we've all created (or allowed to happen) here on planet Earth. Whether you are rich, poor, young, old, sick, healthy, right or left, no health manna, rural organic garden, island dwelling, nor spiritual belief can give you, me or us an out if we keep on screwing up.
Unless we turn around and heal the disconnect that allows us to misguidedly pursue personal goals, without sufficient care for the health of our society and the earth, than it's likely our health problems will go from bad to worse.
If facing this sad reality seems disheartening, don't worry -- a lot of us are in the same boat. It's called planet Earth. We're worried about it, and we can use your help. Health-conscious people need to do more than take potassium iodide; we need to take action.
However, if this truth is too uncomfortable, or violates your subscription to the All Good News, All the Time network, then retreat to whatever offers you temporary relief. We'll still be right here when you get back.
Lots of people send me their suggestions and questions, not to mention their latest e-books and requests to blog on The Huffington Post. In the current crisis, they either want, or give, answers: Isn't it over yet? Are we sure? Take this -- no, take that. Don't take anything. We'll tell you what to take, and when.
One email boosts a superfood, another social activism, while a third person despairs that industries disseminating toxins or radiation don't seem to care about the gradual, ongoing, cumulative pollution of our bodies, our waterways and our world by their stuff.
People tell me they feel helpless, believing that they've no more influence than a mosquito buzzing round an impervious colossus.
I agree that it's scary to go from the supposed certainty of taking a pill (or an attitude adjustment) to the uncertainty of stepping up to social activism. Unlike other corners of our market-driven society, restoring skewed societal priorities comes with no guarantees.
Instead, some soul-searching is required. Can we live with ourselves if we don't come together and make a solid, determined, all-out effort to protect the health of our children, the wildlife and the earth?
Who will call government and industry to task, if not you, me and millions more like us? If more and more people do that, it gets easier. And if we don't, what is the alternative? Give up on planet Earth, and leave a poisoned mess to our children?
The President's Cancer Panel told us that the total cumulative effects of toxins are major contributors to rising cancer rates, spectrum disorders in children and increased illness in children at younger and younger ages.
I won't go through the litany here, but you can go to my website for blog posts on that. These toxins travel the world and add up, accumulating in air, water, food, earth and us. They combine with radiation. While today West Coast radiation levels from the Japanese nuclear calamity seem okay, it's not possible to make absolute statements about tomorrow, next month or next year. Not to mention the radiation we generate right here in the U.S. How much capacity does the earth have to absorb them? How much do we have? Does asking questions about that mean you're "hysterical," or a concerned citizen?
From years of looking into (and trying) many kinds of health treatments, I can tell you that if we allow toxic exposures to progress from not-so-good, to bad, to worse, at a certain point, individual health solutions won't be enough to protect anyone, unless you are counting on mutating into a hardier species, like the cockroach.
Does that mean we should just live on French fries and pizza, and forget about healthy food, lifestyle, purchasing and energy use choices as individuals? Of course not. Those choices will remain vitally important, but they were not designed to target societal choices, and they haven't.
Up until now, many have hoped that one day our incremental choices would add up to to a society that reflects and serves our values.
Has that happened?
Just look around. What feedback are we getting from nature and the world? What do we see happening in our society and political life? How well are our kids doing? Is it getting better? Worse? Do we need a scientific study to answer that question?
Speaking for myself, I see ecological shifts accelerating, and colliding with unsafe business practices to produce a series of calamities, each one worse than its predecessor. In just the last year, this has happened more than once, and we could go back further and retrace the gradual buildup to this moment. But for right now, let's not.
Instead, what can we do? Here are some choices I've heard:
- Build your immune system
- Stock up on superfoods
- Watch the calendar and wait for a magical date when everyone else suddenly wakes up to the results of our collective choices
- Search for a remote, rural enclave to wait it out with your organic coconut and other goodies
- Expect divinity to descend in helicopters and bail us out
- Hope to ascend beyond the earthly cares of this troubled planet.
- Wait for the next crisis that will wake up all those other people.
Confession: Maybe it's just me, but I don't find it all that spiritual to leave behind the mess our society has created. That's like a person who leaves a pile of dishes in the kitchen sink for months on end, and then hopes to sell the house to get rid of them.
In the current critical moment, the Japanese calamity has shown all the world the harsh downside risks of just a few of the societal compromises we've made. In response to this wake-up call, a shift could happen, but there's no guarantee that it will. Unless we step up.
If we all roll up our sleeves and commit ourselves to social activism that addresses our problems at the individual, community and societal levels, things can change. Each of us must play a part. Unless you are raising small children, or are seriously ill, or tending to the seriously ill, then I invite you all to find concrete ways to contribute via social activism. Going to the farmer's market and buying an organic mesclun mix is not enough. And if you don't have any good ideas about where you are needed, then by all means, do ask me.
Do you have suggestions about where people can pitch in to help bring about societal changes? Please share them here! For more information, visit www.HealthJournalistBlog.com.
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