Living Alive Living Dead: Logic and Philosophy of Health

By Jose Puttanani

Health is precious because we get only one chance. It so unique that each individual life is different from others. We are nowhere near knowing the mysterious ways of life in a body.
Health is the power that puts you in charge and it is the spirit that it connects you with the universal energy. Health is founded on earth for strength, driven forward on water, with energy from fire, bound together by air and cooled by the all-pervasive and calming emptiness
We fail to recognise why the ancient sages proclaimed health as the most important, religions made health the spirit of God and philosophers respected health as the essence of life on earth.
What a shame! The pharma companies consider health as a commodity, doctors treat health like maintaining machines, health care practitioners flood us with prescriptions and our governments tell us to fear our own body.
This is a book that investigates the logic and philosophy of health and how the medical practice along with food and agriculture industry is making us sick, when they are expected to look after our health. It is time we take charge of our health, our body, and our prescriptions, and live alive naturally instead of living dead under heavy load of chemicals.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781471694653

Book preview

About author

Puttanany-Photo-BW.jpg

Jose Puttanani

Jose Puttanani was born as the fifth child of Philip and Rosa Puttananickal, at Mevada in Meenachil village, Kottayam District, India. He grew up sharing everyday struggles of the family in the middle of famines and political uncertainty in the post independent India. He started his school education at St Mathew’s Primary School Panthathala and did middle and high schooling at St Antony’s School Mutholy. Civil engineer by qualification and construction contract manager by profession, he has travelled around India and middle east before settling in Australia. Currently working with Queensland Government, Jose had worked with Indian, European, American, and Australian construction companies during the last twenty-five years.

Married to Christina and proud father of four children, Jose Puttanani currently lives in Brisbane. Jose was motivated to write from his experience in short stories and business writing.

Dedicated to my wife Christina and

Children Rosemary, Marianne, Emina and Philip.

Also by Jose Puttanani

Paramasoonyam Philosophy for 21st Century

Independents of AD 2101

India@2070 Getting the Jugaads to Fly

Unwrapping the 21st Century

Meandering Rainbows

4 Stories of the Irrelevant

Acknowledgements

Shaw Academy, South Africa, for their professional diploma courses in Nutrition, Personal Trainer, Alternative Therapies and Physiology that gave me the basic medical knowledge required for writing this book.

Practical Philosophy Australia for the philosophy training sessions that helped me to search for health in the practices of health care industry.

My friend and colleague Wendy Paton for reading the first draft and making suggestions for improvement.

Cover designer Henry Abraham

Living Alive Living Dead

The Logic and Philosophy of Health

Preface

Health Is Precious – We Get Only Chance.

Health Is Unique – Each Individual Life Is Different from Others.

Health Is Mysterious – We Know Very Little About What Goes in Our Bodies.

Health Is Special – There Is Nothing Comparable to Life.

Health Is Power – It Puts You in Charge.

Health Is Spirit – It Connects You with The Universal Energy.

Health Is Earth – We Are Built from Earth.

Health Is Water – It Drives Life Forward.

Health Is Fire – It Is the Source of All Energy.

Health Is Air – It Is Air That Binds Life Together.

Health Is Sky – It Is the Calming Emptiness.

Remember:

Sages Proclaimed Health as The Most Important.

Religions Made Health the Spirit of God.

Philosophers Respected Health as the Essence of Life on Earth.

But Now:

Pharma Companies Consider Health as a Commodity.

Doctors Treat Health Like Maintaining Machines.

Health Care Practitioners Flood Us with Prescriptions.

Governments Tell Us to Fear Our Own Body.

The Choice is Yours:

To Live Alive

Or

To Live Dead

Introduction

Science is misunderstood as the conclusion at the end of a research paper. This is only a partial truth. The truth is that science is the total sum of all known knowledge of the material world that can be applied consistently in the past, present and future.

The global health industry is estimated at US$8.45 trillion in 2018. This is expected to reach US$10 trillion by 2022 and expected to grow. US alone spends $10,000 per capita on health care per annum. In terms of GDP, US spends about 15% of its GDP on health while Australia spends 9% of its GDP on health.

Spending is always the number that industry and politicians like to showcase however what they don’t normally talk about is real health.

As an example, cancer killed 9.6 million people globally in 2018 with current predictions indicating cancer to become the biggest killer and one in two of all Americans will get some form of cancer in their lifetime. Cardiovascular diseases took 18 million lives in 2018. There are so many to list and the graphs are showing upward trend in terms of spending and deaths. The global corona virus pandemic has opened several questions on the current approach towards health care. While the world is divided on how to manage the COVID-19 the World Health Organisation (WHO) continues to push for medicines-based treatment. This is quite logical because WHO works to promote modern medicine driven by pharmaceutical industry and their supporters. How many know that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the second biggest donor to WHO, which is an indicator of where the organisation is heading and what their goals are.

In my mind, the following health indicators require much more serious attention than a viral infection.

Diabetes in Australia has steadily increased to1.2 million in 2020.

Heart attacks remain the number 1 cause of death in Australia. 430,000 Australians had one or more heart attacks at some point in their lives. 57,000 Australians suffer heart attacks every year, with 12,151 deaths in 2020. The death rate has been declining due to improvement in emergency services and first aids.

10% of Australians smoked in 2020, showing a declining trend.

19,000 breast cancer diagnosis in 2020, showing a steady increase in number.

50,000 cancer deaths estimated in 2019, showing a steady increasing trend of steady increase in number.

In this backdrop, one may wonder what the WHO and the global health care industry is trying to achieve. It is not a subject that requires much research or speculation. The answer is simple. Profit at the expense of health. Otherwise, why the whole world ended up in such a big mess when COVID-19 struck? It is of particular significance that countries that spend at least $10,000 per person on health was exposed with health care system that was unable to care for most of the people.

What is Health?

I thought about writing about health because I don’t think the health care system around the world shows much concern for health. So, if they are not concerned about health what are they concerned about? The answer lies in the way today’s corporations work. Today’s corporations work with their focus on money only. When it comes to the health care industry, it is about selling medicines and healthcare services that will make money. In that process they have missed their primary function which is to improve health.

In that context, let’s examine what is health? The dictionary definition of health says, ‘a person’s mental or physical condition’. This being the basic definition, we should also ask what good health and bad health is. The state of being in good health is certainly ‘the state of being free from illness or injury’. Obviously if someone is affected by an illness or injury, the person is not in a state of good health. WHO defines health as ‘a state of complete physical and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. I am reading it again and asking myself. Do they in WHO know exactly what they are doing?

Let’s think about how we measure good health. There are several measures in practice, and I am trying to put together a few commonly used measures.

Height and weight may be the most common measure where ratios are established for healthy and unhealthy body mass index. Anyone within the generally accepted body mass index will be considered as healthy. What comes to mind are the medieval castles built with stones and wood to make them strong and secure against enemy attack. Do we consider such castles as healthy living places by today’s standards?

The next measure is obviously blood characteristics, which is a measure of the chemical composition of blood, following industry standards established based on health characteristics of people considered as healthy.

Physical fitness is another measure. Ability of a person to run, walk, lift weights, work hard for long hours and similar activities for short or long durations measured against age and other factors.

While these are good measures that say part of the story, what is missed is the original intent of the definition. A person with acceptable body mass index and acceptable blood characteristic and considered strong enough to participate in physical activity will be considered as healthy even when the person is on long term medication. Anyone using supplements is also a healthy person from this perspective because feeding the body with supplements is accepted as healthy.

Another measure that is often used is whether a person is under the influence of a disease or not. This is an area that should be closely examined. Firstly, what is considered as a disease. Is a cold or flu or injury to body or an animal bite or an infection by a natural living organism a sign of ill health? What if the body is able to live with the infection or able to destroy the infection or heal the injury? If a person had a flu and continues to live without medication, is that a sign of good health? Or is a person supported by a flu shot considered healthy? I disagree with the modern medical practices that classify people that have a flu shot as healthier than people who are naturally immune against the influenza virus. It is only the beginning. There are so many other measures practised in the health industry. There is an expert for every body part and there is research happening in almost all the universities around the world with the purpose of creating new definitions, new medicines, and new experts. Unfortunately, all these experts come up with their own views and disagree with everybody else. In the end they're all going to sell their medicines, their systems, and their schools of practise. What it does is create system that focuses on parts only while missing the big picture. When it comes to health, the big picture of the body matters a lot.

Longevity was always a measure of good health. Studies in longevity always found that living longer has been common in farming communities in the past. What researchers of longevity have always found was that people in farming communities lived generally longer regardless of their lifestyle which has all the elements of unhealthy lifestyle in the modern context. Firstly, they live with fresh seasonal products and do not follow any strict diet daily. Plenty of fresh water, sunshine and interactions with nature and animals is part of their life. Mostly smoke and drink alcohol. Mostly are known to be spiritual but not overly religious. Mostly living monogamously and as part of large families with plenty of children, living together sharing and caring whatever they have. Seasonal and religious celebrations form part of their lives and such celebrations usually come with excesses. What makes them special is their positive attitude towards tomorrow and hope that tragedies like death, draught, floods, and the like, will pass. Let’s imagine how the modern health care industry will take care of them.  Health care professionals will intervene in every stage of their lives and make them sick.

In my view, perfect health is efficient and harmonious functioning of all body parts. Humans apply the same principle when dealing with environmental issues. The same enlightened humans unfortunately treat human body with chemicals, which eventually leads to inefficiency and disharmony in the functioning of the human body. It is time to return to mother nature to become healthy.

Perfect health is when all body parts function efficiently as designed. Here is a test for health rating of human body.

If you get a minor injury - bruise, cut or abrasion:

COVID-19

It was the response from governments and medical communities around the world that prompted me to write about health. To me, everything that has been done to humanity in the name of COVID is totally unacceptable. I am going to explain here why.

Everyone agrees that COVID-19 is caused by a virus. Several theories surround the origin of the virus. Some argue that the virus came from bats. Some argue that the virus came from a lab where the scientists were experimenting with it. Some argue that the scientists in the lab introduced the new virus into the bats and from there it transmitted to humans. Another theory promotes the belief that the virus came from space.

When a virus enters the body through the mouth and nose it is going to take advantage of the alkalinity in the mouth and throat to slowly multiply and spread down to the lungs. When the virus is developing in the throat, we begin to experience a throat infection and once the virus reaches the lungs the person develops a cough and fever, due to the infection entering the blood streams.

Traditional wisdom all over the world recommends practices to control the virus when they are multiplying in the throat. Some practices recommend gargling with warm saline water. Some traditions recommend taking an alcoholic beverage to control the infection. Both practices highlight the importance of using acidity in the throat to control the growth of viruses in the throat. As a child I used to get a cold and flu on a regular basis and the doctors I have seen then used to advise me to do saline gargling. I have been practicing it my entire life and I was able to control most flu infections without medicine. I haven’t seen any advice from a medical officer on TV recommending the use of saline gargling to control the growth of COVID-19, although it is available on the internet. On the other hand, there was a media blitz to recommend sanitization using alcohol containing sanitizers without focusing on controlling the breeding ground, which is the throat. Obviously to me, the solution focused more on selling products made by the pharma industry than helping people to recover.

When a large company markets a vaporizer for inhaling synthetic products for curing the effects of infection in the lungs, it is approved and supported by doctors and governments. What we don’t see is the same level of support for natural products that can heal the infection safely and effectively.

The second important part in the spread of a viral infection is the weather. We have seen curve after curve of the COVID spread in the last two years and the spread was connected to cold or rainy weather. So why does it spread in cold weather or why is the cold weather season called the flu season. The answer lies in the connection with the common cold. When the body is exposed to cold weather, the body produces more mucus in the nose which warms the air inhaled into the lungs. Since cold or rainy weather is also the time of increased in moisture in the air, viruses find the moisture in the air as a medium for transmission. It is quite natural that such viruses in the air happily settle in the nose of someone with a runny nose.

This is where the solution lies in preventing