Work with evolution, not against it
Wellness principles #1
Over the years, I started to question a lot of the assumptions I grew up with about health. Like many of my generation, I once held deep respect for the medical profession—their training, dedication and authority.
Back then, we had a family doctor who knew us well. He looked at the whole picture, not just symptoms, and his advice often carried a sense of balance and care.
Holistic medicine
But times have changed. The rise of big pharmaceutical companies, the pressure on GPs to run like businesses, and the influence of corporations chasing profit have made it harder for frontline doctors to offer truly holistic advice.
And it isn’t just the medical system. Think about how food has shifted: ultra-processed meals instead of fresh ingredients, supermarkets replacing local grocers, and much of our fruit and veg now shipped in from overseas.
Add to that direct-to-consumer drug advertising (in the US and New Zealand), research dominated by big pharma funding, and families with less time to nurture healthy habits—and our view of wellness has become skewed.
Evolution and health
Here’s the bigger picture: humans didn’t evolve in this kind of world.
Our earliest ancestors go back 6–7 million years. Anatomically, modern humans appeared about 300,000 years ago in Africa.
For almost all of that time, our bodies adapted to survive in wild environments—savannahs, forests, deserts. Our DNA, metabolism and immune systems were built for resilience.
So, here’s the question: how can we expect synthetic drugs, often developed in just a few years from petrochemical bases, to replace the natural healing systems that took millions of years to evolve?
The short answer: we can’t. And too often, the real driver is profit.
But healthcare profit is a topic for another day.
Modern medicine vs natural health
For now, my aim is to share principles of wellness that honour both what modern medicine does well and what it too often overlooks. Think of these as a layperson’s reflections, not medical advice. Always check with a qualified professional before making health decisions.
This is just the start. Principle #2 will explore how much credibility vaccinations actually command. Stay tuned.
#wellnessprinciples #holistichealth #natural healing
