What exactly is a body?
There are many different aspects to the answering of this question, but how can we learn to look after the body if we have no idea what it is all about? In Webster's New World Dictionary, one of the definitions for "body" says "the whole physical structure and substance of a man, animal or plant". Another option in the same book is "the flesh or material substance, as opposed to the spirit". In Chambers 20th Century Dictionary the body is also defined as "matter, as opposed to spirit".
Whilst I do believe in the triad of body, mind and spirit, I must admit to being surprised that it was stated so directly in two dictionaries! My view on the body, mind and spirit approach is that the spirit is YOU, and you affect the body by thoughts in the mind - mind over matter.
I believe that the means the mind uses to communicate with the body is a collection of chemical producing organs, glands, that pump their chemical messengers directly into the bloodstream. Consequently, they instantly affect the whole body. These glands are without tubes to the areas they target (ductless) and together form the endocrine system.
I also believe that the body can affect the mind, and how YOU feel, via this same system of glands, tricking you into thinking you that you feel differently from how you actually are. However, this effect can be minimised by keeping the body physically balanced, nourished and properly cleansed of the toxic by products of metabolism.
I think that the key to understanding what the body is lies in the knowledge that it consists of millions of cells, which reproduce themselves regularly according to templates called genes. This composite of cells called the body acts as an engine using oxygen to burn carbon, much like wood burns in a bonfire.
The burning produces energy for the body to use both for movement and maintenance. The temperature that the body produces and maintains heat is 98.4 degrees Fahrenheit or 37 degrees Celsius. An increase in temperature is made when the body wishes to free up the flow of fatty fluids in its sewage system. Hot sweats occur when a ductless gland at the front of the brain, called the "pituitary gland", is under pressure.
I look at the body as a community of cells, organised into groups, with a common goal, that of survival. Left to its own devices, the body will do whatever it takes to survive. It therefore minimises the effects of non-survival things going on, even if it means discomfort to the person. The body will isolate toxic substances, dumping them in the area that it perceives will be the least damaging. The body, in this way, protects the key organs at all costs, until it can do so no longer. Deterioration exhibits itself, at some point, in the form of what we call symptoms.
The body is also an environment, with external as well as internal influences. The closest external environment is air it breathes in, the food we eat and the liquids we drink. These, after all, enter the body and it has the task of filtering out, as best it can, the useful from the rubbish, the nourishing from the poisonous, the good from the bad.
The internal influences are all the mechanisms the body has to maintain its ideal scene, which we have named "homeostasis". The simplest form of cellular life is the minute single-celled organism, such as an amoeba, which lives in water. Its cell wall allows the passage of water and water-soluble substances across it both ways.
On the basis of nature wishing to fill a vacuum, liquids and gases will flow naturally from a more concentrated area to one next-door with less in it. Hence, for instance, with the amoeba, the poisonous products from its energy production will flow out of the cell when their levels are higher compared with the water surrounding it. Likewise its sustenance will pass into it when the levels inside the cell wall are less than outside it.
With collections of cells that make up a more complicated organism such as the human body, each cell still needs to be bathed in liquid, as well as having liquid within it, but the cellular system has to include sewage collection and disposal so as not to poison the whole. Likewise, the cells need nourishment, so there has to be an absorption and transport system to deliver this to the liquid surrounding each cell.
The contents of all this fluid within the body, and the balance of the fluid's movements throughout the body, give us an environment. If it is clean enough, and it contains the correct nourishment for the cells, it will support the survival of the body and will not support other life forms such as parasites - worms, thrush (candida), head lice - nor would viruses and bacteria be in quite such evidence as they seem to be today.
When the quality of this environment reaches a certain level of deterioration, however, it not only cannot sustain healthy cells in the body, it provides an ideal environment for other living organisms to thrive. What is the point of killing these off with various drugs, or herbs for that matter, unless we address the problem of the environment acting as their ideal home? I leave you to answer that question, but do bear in mind that no money can be made by the chemical industry if we take the more basic approach. We even need chemical free food and drink to do the job properly!
There is a belief that lifespan should be nearer to 120 years than three score year and ten. As a spiritual being, numbers do not interest me as much as quality. This I strive for!