What if everything you believe about health is upside down or just plain wrong?
What if there’s an unbreakable set of rules that govern your health?
Could that explain why you’re sick even though you eat well and exercise? Or why you can’t lose that extra weight, or reverse diabetes, or get your blood pressure and cholesterol under control?
Read the key points and article below for the 7 Step Sequence for Better Health!
Key Points
- I created this Health Pyramid in order to share the methods I used to heal myself from 28 symptoms.
- Having “faced off” and won against both cancer and an autoimmune disease, I propose a New Health Pyramid. It’s based on not only my own experience but also thousands of hours of interviewing some of the best doctors, healers, and functional medicine practitioners in the world.
- My Health Pyramid has 7 steps, of which 3 form the foundation without which the top 4 topple
- Food is the last step on my pyramid; getting to Calm is the first step.
- Why do some people escape disease but others catch everything? It is because the base of their pyramid is strong.
- Our body has two goals: to keep us alive and to procreate. Sickness only comes when the body starts losing the battle to stay alive.
- What battle? Our body is battling stress, chemicals, lack of nutrients. sleep deprivation and more every minute of every day.
- On a daily basis we are either in “sick zone” or “heal zone”. When “sick zone” exceeds “heal zone”, we get sick and then diseased.
After all, despite the billions spent on disease management and specialty diets, we are still a nation of sick, fat, unhappy citizens.
I am here to tell you: it is not your fault. It’s not. You are an intelligent, committed person actively seeking health and fitness. And yet, everything you do seems to fail. You try again and again, in a new way – a “better” way – hoping that, his time, it works. You start that hot new diet “guaranteed” to work. And it does work, temporarily. Then it fails. You get more and more frustrated until, at some point, you binge on everything. You feel sick and guilty. And then the cycle starts again.
Sounds familiar? That was me, too.
It is true that, to thrive, your body needs the fuel of healthy food. However, if you are already sick or symptomatic, fixing your diet is not the first step on your path to healing. It is the last step. No matter how much broccoli or bone broth you eat, you cannot heal if the other critical elements of health are not in place.
My “wow” moment hit when I realized that good health is a pyramid, with a strong foundation to support the peak. A wobbly foundation causes the pyramid to crumble, leaving us with symptoms and sickness.
This is why our diets fail. The food we eat is but the capstone of a large, complex structure that, if left unattended, will crumble beneath a diet and cause it to fail. The key, then, is to establish and strengthen the foundation before building upon it, layer by layer. Diet is, in fact, the last element in the process of health.
What I have learned through healing myself and from interviewing top doctors is that there is a formula for healing. You can’t randomly address one factor – like diet or exercise – and wonder why you fail to heal your disease or to lose weight. There is a reason why a vegetarian can contract heart disease while a smoker with terrible habits can live to 90 years old. We once thought it was their genetic luck, but we now know that genetics influences only about 10% of our health. The rest is in our control.
I had thought I would reverse my 28 symptoms one by one. First the hives, then the angry outbursts, then the hair loss, then the bladder urgency… but that’s just not how the body works. My journey to health has taught me that the body heals in waves, not symptom by symptom. What is fascinating is that our body can heal lightening fast once it is in what I call the “Heal Zone.” And thus our mission is simple: get in the Heal Zone – and stay there!
The Heal Zone requires three core elements which compose the foundation of our pyramid: Calm, Sleep, and Nutrients. These are the components of the pyramid which support the structure of your good health. So – if you can keep calm during the day, sleep well at night, and give your body the nutrients it needs, diet and exercise will naturally fall into place. You won’t have to battle cravings or stuff yourself with leftover pizza at midnight. You will have the energy to walk your 10,000 steps every day. You will feel satisfied by a healthy diet, without binging or craving. You will feel energized, motivated, and happy.
Your body is a miraculous, self-healing machine. If you follow the right formula, it can be rebuilt, and you can be reborn healthier, younger and more resilient.
You can choose to be reborn healthier.
You can choose to be reborn younger.
You can choose to take back your life.
All you have to do is follow the right formula. That formula is my new Health Pyramid.
There has never been a more urgent time for humanity to put our health first. Despite the $2.3 trillion in annual health spending, over 50% of US adults have a chronic illness. Over 50 million people suffer from an autoimmune disease, and it is forecasted that 1 in 2 newborns will be autistic by 2025. This means that, potentially, half of your grandkids could be autistic. You are either, dear reader, sick, about to be sick, or the caretaker for a sick loved one.
My Health Pyramid has answers.
Some Myths & Mistruths
- The understanding that our good health is primarily a function of our good diet is just plain wrong.
- The belief that an extreme solution to our symptoms is the only option (such as steroids for knee pain) is a myth.
- The trust in our doctors as the infallible experts who can unfailingly heal us when we fall sick is misplaced.
- The body is the most sophisticated, complex, interconnected, dynamic living system on Earth, with only one purpose – to keep us alive.
- The symptoms and sickness we experience are merely the “red light” on your dashboard – blaring loudly to tell us that something is wrong, and we need to pull over.
Pull over now. Read this article and do a quick check of your “engine”.
Reena’s 7 Step Health Pyramid
My 28 Symptoms
If you read health books or listen to health podcasts, I know how you feel.
Overwhelmed. Confused. Should you eat vegan or meat only? Is eating eggs ok now? I thought coconut oil was saturated and terrible – but now, I should put it in my coffee?
When I had my second health crisis in September 2016, I acquired 28 symptoms that conventional doctors just couldn’t figure out. I had been tested for EVERYTHING. My doctors said I was the “healthiest sick person” they knew. Yes, I was severely underweight at 95 pounds. Yes, I had unexplained hives, rashes, and black lines tormenting my skin. Yes, my eyesight had rapidly deteriorated. But, they said, those symptoms could be psychosomatic. My tests were clear. One doctor prescribed anti-depressants. Another suggested steroids. The day a doctor told me I might only have 5 to 10 years, living with these 28 symptoms, I broke. His exact words were, “Look, this is your new reality. You’re getting older. Get used to it.”
So, of course, I decided to ignore all of them and fix myself. I embarked on a journey to get my health (and my life) back. The first step in my mind was figuring out why my body was so angry at me.
That’s how I saw it. My body was literally freaking out, screaming and throwing tantrums at will, like a small child in crisis.
I could yell back, duct tape it, ignore it – or, I could try to listen and understand the issue. There had to be a trigger.
Because of the way that I got sick, I had always assumed that there was only one trigger. One day I was dancing on the edge of a swimming pool in Cabo; the next I was in an ER with my eyes swollen and face puffed up. That was the first symptom. Within a month, there were 27 more.
So I decided to get an unofficial degree in healing. But then, as I dove into research, forums, books, and interviews, I ended up with severe migraines every night. There were way too many very sick people who weren’t getting better – and every new article from a renowned expert contradicted the last one I had read. One night, looking at all my notes on the computer, it hit me that this process was becoming counterproductive. I needed an answer to my health crisis, not a mess of conflicting sensationalized information to constantly sort through.
In times of crisis, we all fall back on what we know best.
In my case, that was chocolate and startup principles. So I dove headfirst into gooey deliciousness while trying to apply the golden rules that had granted me success in my career:
- Don’t believe, hypothesize.
- Know your starting point.
- Experiment a lot; test and track; then analyze.
- Small changes often make a big impact – so try everything in small doses.
- There’s a tipping point to everything; find the tipping point to my health, and then move on.
That was it. Those were the five things I was going to do until I reversed all my symptoms and got back my health. I was going to do this forever if that’s how long it took. I refused to consider the options of steroids or antidepressants or living with my symptoms for the rest of my life.
Fifteen months later, I got back my health.
My rebirth came with profound personal insights, and the shocking revelation that everything we believe about our health and the reasons why we get sick is just plain FALSE.
Having been urged by so many to share my experience, I decided to write this article to summarize what I now know and believe.
Why We Get Sick
There is no single trigger to a full body meltdown. Our body is a beautiful, strong, complex machine designed to keep us alive and to procreate. It’s not about to fall apart from some pollen, or milk, or gluten. Despite all the crap we throw at it, for years, it fights back valiantly until, one day, it fights back a little less vigorously. Then, another day, our body can’t rebuild the gut lining as well. It starts to slowly lose the fight. That’s when symptoms start – aches, nasal drips, migraines, gas and bloating, fatigue, or mood swings. And then finally, one day, with a heavy heart, it’s forced to accept defeat. You are granted a diagnosis of diabetes, or cancer, or heart disease, lupus, thyroiditis… And those are the lucky ones. Some simply die of a sudden heart attack.
Just as we humans have different capacity to fight, so do our bodies. A skinny Indian like me will lose pretty badly fighting a trained boxer. Similarly, we are all born with a different innate capacity to fight off sickness and stay healthy. Some never get cancer no matter how much they smoke. Others, like me, get cancer despite being a healthy vegetarian for most of my life. Cancer can take six to ten years to develop. Heart disease and diabetes take decades too. No one falls ill overnight. We all pay the price for neglecting our bodies early in our adult lives.
So, if you or a loved one you know is sick, here’s why: their body is overwhelmed with triggers, and no longer has the strength to fight back.
How To Heal
The greatest insight from my own healing experience is this: everyone can heal.
You can reverse all of your miserable symptoms and rediscover a youthful life full of vigor, zest, and excitement. It doesn’t even take that long. The sooner you react, the faster you get back to the baseline of health – which is where your body thrives.
The Health Pyramid is my way of sharing what I believe are the true priorities for reclaiming your health. Our culture’s focus on diet as the tool to achieve good health may have been true decades ago when everyone went to bed around 10 pm and the word “stress” was reserved for military personnel in times of war. Today, the food we eat is the last step in achieving true health. Let’s dive into the pyramid so I can share what I believe should be on your priority list.
Step #1: CALM
Click here to read my post on Step #1: CALM.
Step #2: SLEEP
Click here to read my post on Step #2: SLEEP.
Step #3: NUTRIENTS
Click here to read my post on Step #3: NUTRIENTS.
Step #4: JOY
Click here to read my post on Step #4: JOY.
Step #5: MOVE
Click here to read my post on Step #5: MOVE.
Step #6: DETOX
Click here to read my post on Step #6: DETOX.
Step #7: DIET
Click here to read my post on Step #7: DIET.
No one should suffer from preventable and treatable diseases. No one should live a half life due to their diabetes or heart disease. These seven steps may have a loved one! Please share and let’s get healthier together!
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