Fundamental truth about your body

Your Ticket To One Minute Wellness

By Glenn Mueller
Senior Writer
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Imagine if you could discover the true secret to health and happiness in just one minute. Though this may sound impossible, it only takes a single moment of revelation to see beyond conventional thinking and unlock your true capacity for wellness.

"Those moments of revelation lead you to start thinking differently," Dr. Ben Lerner tells eDiets. "And it is thinking differently that creates wellness."

Making a series of small changes that promote wellness in every aspect of your life is just what One Minute Wellness is all about. In his newest book, the author of the New York Times best-seller Body By God empowers his readers to take responsibility for their own health and happiness. Ultimately, the book does for natural health what One Minute Millionaire did for personal finance. And like that other classic, Dr. Ben's latest book is actually two stories in one.

The left-hand pages contain a fictional account of some individuals whose lives were completely transformed after they discovered the secrets of wellness and put them into practice. On the right-hand pages, Dr. Ben provides all the information you need to transform your own life for the better.

Throughout the book, Dr. Ben uses the H.G. Wells story "The Country of the Blind" to refer to the present-day society in America. In his view, our health-care system has blinded people from seeing some fundamental truths about their bodies.

"We're quick-fix minded," Dr. Ben says. "The quick fix always seems to be medication or surgery."

In the book, Dr. Ben provides startling research suggesting that our health-care system is actually the major contributor to our poor health. He also examines a phenomenon the British Medical Journal once referred to as medicalization: the medical industry's frequent practice of turning commonly found symptoms into a disease and then prescribing medications for it. According to research from the Kaiser Family Foundation, a startling 3.1 billion retail prescriptions were filled in the United States during 2003 alone.

"Our healthcare system isn't getting any better," Dr. Ben says. "We aren't getting better. It is time to stop following the wave of the culture and create a new one. It is time for a cultural revolution."

Instead of taking a purely mechanical approach to health-care solutions, Dr. Ben insists we must adopt a system that recognizes people as "complex, vital, biological beings capable of self-healing." According to Dr. Ben, everybody is created with a God-given capacity for healing.

"People are born with the intention of being well," Dr. Ben says. "The human body has a natural capacity to heal and function, but we keep interfering with that."

According to Dr. Ben, we need to move beyond our current definition of the word wellness. Though unprecedented amounts of diet, exercise and motivational products are currently being sold, obesity has reached epidemic proportions in this country. Wellness is commonly associated with being thin and looking good. People also generally assume they are healthy as long as they don't show any outward symptoms of disease.

"Heart disease, cancer and many other major health problems are present initially without any symptoms," Dr. Ben says. "Rather than waiting for disease or pain to set in, you have to build and maintain your health."

True health is not the absence of anything but the presence of well-being, he said. A state of well-being can only be achieved through something he calls Maximized Living. According to Dr. Ben, Maximized Living includes "exercise, a thoughtful diet, discovering a compelling purpose for your life, building strong relationships and the use of nontoxic, noninvasive forms of health intervention, such as prayer, chiropractic care, supplementing missing nutrients and rehabilitative techniques."

The 5 Essentials of Maximized Living include:

1. Avoidance And Reduction Of Medications. "In time, you must begin to judge for yourself whether your medications are keeping you alive, merely palliating symptoms of an unhealthy body, or actually causing some of the ailments you suffer from," Dr. Ben writes. "With the guidance of your prescribing physician, you need to make your own best decisions on medication. As you heal, work with your medical doctors to help you reduce or eliminate the drugs you're on."

2. Maximum Nerve Supply. According to Dr. Ben, the spine is your lifeline. From the time you are born, your brain sends power through the spinal cord and nervous system to control all function and healing in the body. "If the spine out of place, it interferes with proper nerve supply and your muscles can't function the way they are supposed to," he says. For this reason, everyone should have their spine checked for proper alignment by a chiropractor, he says.

3. Quality Nutrients. Dr. Ben says an inadequate supply of certain nutrients can interfere with the normal function of your body. To make sure you are being properly nourished, he recommends eating as much Food By God as possible. "Food by God is the food God designed for you to eat," he says. "Your body knows exactly what to do with that food." Just as medications can cause adverse side effects, eating too many synthetic or modified foods can disrupt your body's natural processes. As a general rule, 75 to 85 percent of the foods you eat should be Food By God instead of Food By Man, he said.

4. Optimum Oxygen Levels and Lean Muscle. "Every vital system in your body that keeps you alive -- your heart, lungs, spinal cord, muscles and arteries -- requires that you move on a consistent basis," he writes. "They need this to function properly, or in some cases, to even function at all." Every exercise program should include a combination of aerobic exercise and resistance training.

5. Peace of Mind and Strong Relationships. Health is actually a state of physical well-being, mental well-being and social well-being. "If you're not having a good time living in your body, it's hard for that body to be well or for you to call it healthy," he writes. "The fact is, you cannot separate your wellness from your emotions. Every feeling you have affects some part of your body." If you are currently programmed for stress, depression or low self-esteem, you can reprogram your perceptions through a combination of stress management, time management, prayer and relationship-building techniques, he says.

Once your eyes have been opened to the truth, Dr. Ben assures people it is possible to "achieve maximized living in a minimized world." In fact, he is confident a small group of people committed to the principles of true wellness can and will change the world.

"I love what I do, and I know God has a purpose for my life," he says. " I hope to have a long time to fulfill that purpose. I want to be as resonant of a vessel for God as I possibly can be."

If you are finally ready to unlock your true capacity for wellness, get your copy of One Minute Wellness