Truths in health make a significant difference on where we land on the health spectrum only when we apply them.  This may seem obvious but with each of us searching for optimal health amongst the plethora of divergent ideas from claiming to be true, we need to consider our own systematic application of the truth upon our health and well-being decisions.  As human beings, finite in our knowledge and resources, we have many choices that must be made in the area of health.  Generally, we should set up our lifestyles to accommodate the things that we hold to be most important to our well-being.  The question we must ask ourselves is,” Does my lifestyle reflect the truths of health I know and the health values I hold or have I accommodated deceptions with false expectations of either achieving the wrong health goals or falling short of the correct goals? In other words, are my health and well-being decisions truth oriented or deception oriented?

If I acknowledge that truth about health exists and that that it can be known, I must discern if my lifestyle decisions reflect the application of my beliefs in such truths (I Thess. 5:21). Knowing that truth must come from outside my own subjective opinion, I need to determine what the Creator has laid down as the standard and design.  By knowing what God has said and what He desires from me, I am equipped to make better health and well-being decisions.  Truth in health also means understanding the creator’s design and applying His principles.  My lifestyle decisions must take into account what is true both in terms of design (“what is”) and value (“what ought to be”) if I am to approximate optimal health.

Good stewardship requires seeking after such truths.  Not all of us need to be PhD’s in nutritional chemistry, medicine, and exercise physiology, but all need to understand their health enough to steward our gift of health.  Not all need to possess degrees in theology, but all need to understand the highest goals of whole person health as it pertains to their values and goals, physically and spiritually.  This does take time, effort, and some monetary commitment, but so does visiting the doctor for the care of an illness which could have been avoided with better choices or visiting a counselor to deal with broken relationships resulting from wrong choices.  The good things of life are also lost in diminished productivity when our health does not provide for our ability to work and to create and to serve God as well as our fellow man.

I have found that common health and well-being traps often come in the form of a human desire for control or an over emphasis on one area of health versus a whole person perspective.  Broadly speaking regarding well-being, our modern culture often pushes us to overlook truth in health in favor of “pragmatism” in health- what works to control it.  In addition, we also tend to over-emphasize one area of health to the detriment of the other areas- thereby undermining the very optimization that we are seeking. We will briefly touch on five areas where I see people stuck in un-fruitful if not detrimental lifestyle choice foci: incomplete approaches to physical well-being, spiritual well-being, pleasure focused well-being, intellectually focused well-being, or relationally focused well-being.

First, many focus exclusively upon physical well-being.  Indeed, as a physician, I appropriately spend much of my time helping people in this important area.   In addition, we hear much about this area of focus in media and everyday discussions- many are concerned with the latest and greatest medicine, supplement, exercise, or diet.  The problem comes when these methods consume an inordinate amount of time and energy. While we act wisely in avoiding excess sugar, maintaining a healthy eight, and in pursuing physical fitness, each of these have a dark side when pursued in extremes.  We cross over at time into self-harm when respectively these three practices become a fear of food, a body image disorder like anorexia, or an overtrained obsession with physique, each of which can detract from spiritual or relational aspects of health.  While focus will wax and wane upon different areas of our lives, if the focus remains exclusively on the physical without appropriate attention to the spiritual and relational aspects of life the result will often be suboptimal health. 

Second, I have known people to suffer when an overemphasis on the spiritual aspects overwhelms the body’s need for truth based physical care.  We see some drastic examples of this in certain religious systems- systems often picked up in part even by the modern secular society.  Here we can see a wrong focus on spiritual or psychological “healing” as the sole means of physical healing.  The focus is off in these approaches.  The spiritualistic nature of these systems does not espouse the truth and therefore offer deceptive solutions that in reality can lead to physical harm in the long run even if a person makes some short-term gains.  The lack of truth in the spiritual system harms the physical body.  In some Christian circles, physical means of health care are eschewed consciously or unconsciously leading to poor health.  In some mind over matter circles of health belief systems, all physical health is attributed to one’s past psychological life such that physical health only comes through healing of one’s vague sense of mind and heart.  Either approach falls short of truth and thus also of optimal health.  Other times, sincere Christians have a skewed view of the body and spirit interaction.  They can forget that God made the physical body as well as the spiritual and that though it is passing away, we are called to steward our physical bodies as part of the directive to steward and care for God’s creation.  Over – emphasis on the spiritual life can cause some well-intended people to forget that God has created whole beings- body and spirit – when an overemphasis on the psychological contributors to physical health ignores the reality of God’s physical design.

Third, since our health and well-being commitments flow out of our desires, pleasure-seeking, especially in our affluent culture, can be an alluring distraction from truth-oriented decisions.  In these cases, truth about health is sacrificed wholesale for the sake of pleasure.  This pleasure-seeking approach can take many forms including overeating or undereating.  It may also take the form of seeking adrenaline through unhealthy or risky experiences.  Obviously, substance abuse (although a complicated subject) can be in part for the sake of stimulating pleasure sensations.  Less obviously, the pursuit of extreme sports could result in life-changing injuries.  A myriad of such options calls us to forgo truth in health and well-being for short term pleasure sensations – this often results in unwanted health consequences.

Fourth, while some seek pleasure, others seek intellectual well-being over truth in health.  People committed to the life of the mind in order to control life will fail to discern the path to true health as they ignore the spiritual life of man in hopes of controlling their physical world.  Examples abound in our culture in the fields of science, philosophy, technology, and many other professions seeking to improve our collective understanding.  The problem comes when the foundation of truth in regard to morality, the “What ought to be” is ignored or denied in each respective field, the answers that they offer only lead to more deception and loss of health.  The neglect of seeking whole truth in the wider culture negatively impacts the decisions and interpretations of those leading the various industries thereby affecting the health and well-being of those taking their recommendations.  The solely intellectual focus, while ignoring the ethical, affects both the individual in their own life and the lives of those they are directing.  Loss of truth in any area is ultimately detrimental to truth in health whether it forsakes the “what is” or “what ought to be”.

Fifth, another initially promising approach to health seeks fulfilment through relationships.  By taking the innate drive for humans to relate and gather for mutual benefit and overemphasizing it in either people-pleasing or the practice of compromising the truth for the sake of unity, some end up going down unfruitful if not harmful roads.  On one hand, many pursue the approval of others so much that they neglect their own needs in other areas of health.  Although we are commanded to look out for the needs of others (BIBLE), we should not neglect our own value being made in the image of God nor make public approval an idol to serve.  On the other hand, though we may not fall prey to the intoxication of people pleasing, we may so value the peace of belonging in a group that we compromise truth or values in order to not contradict peer pressure.  When pursuing a groups’ erroneous goals, we may violate God’s commands or simply neglect what is good and right for ourselves.  Once again, an overemphasis in even seemingly noble area of relational health can result in suboptimal health.

Having briefly touched upon deceptions that lead away from truth in health, we can return to the design woven into creation and as a starting point in discerning how to apply the Creators principles.  He has set the standard for all of life and the closer we can discern this standard from the Word and creation, the greater our health and well-being.  Such study as the Greek and Hebrew words in the Bible regarding health like raphe, hugianio, and sozo a necessary foundation.  I will be addressing these in the near future, so that each of us can continually assess our health and well-being decisions and prayerfully discern if we are living consistently according to the truth as set forth by our Creator. 

Next in the series… True Health: What does it include in Biblical terms?