--- title: "Constants and Variables of Health" description: "Health should be a natural state for humans, but it isn’t. How is it possible that a perfect machine built by God fails all the time? why is 50% of the world having a chronic health condition?" author: "Faris Zacina" published: 2016-06-22T18:50:55.837Z updated: 2016-06-22T18:50:55.837Z url: https://fariszacina.com/constants-and-variables-of-health tags: ["Health"] --- # Constants and Variables of Health > Health should be a natural state for humans, but it isn’t. How is it possible that a perfect machine built by God fails all the time? why is 50% of the world having a chronic health condition? Health should be a natural state for humans, but it isn’t. How is it possible that a perfect machine built by God fails all the time? why is 50% of the world having a chronic health condition? Yes, yes, i know we are not living a healthy lifestyle and nutrition is crappy. We have toxins in the environment, genetic predisposition for disease and too much stress. We are consuming drugs and antibiotics to fix things, and occasionally eat healthy and hit the gym, and even when we want to live healthier we focus our efforts on the wrong things. To conclude what we should focus on, it is smart to reflect how a natural environment differs from the modern urban environment, lifestyle and nutrition and draw some conclusions to identify the key constants of health. Imagine a world 10,000 years ago, and humans freely hunting and gathering in the wild. Whatever vision of that environment you have, there are a couple of constants in a natural environment like that. The first constant is **Movement**, because humans have to move to find food, shelter and to perform other actions**. **The second constant is **Fasting, **since food is scarce, and intermittent fasting is a natural state. Clean **Water **and** Air **is usually a constant, but **Food **is a variable, since it is not easy to get, and especially nutrient-dense and caloric food. There are many other constants and variables that are important to think about (e.g. rest/sleep, reproduction/sex, stress, socialization etc.) and that have a significant effect on health and should be considered carefully. I could elaborate on the constants and variables further, but my point is the constants of health are what we should focus on. To restore a natural state of health, humans should have a healthy environment (air, water etc.) and lifestyle, and focus on daily **training/movement **and regular **fasting. **Health constants should come first, and variables second. Putting training and fasting first is a key difference compared to the diet-first approach prevalent in literature. Fasting is highly underestimated, even if advocated in all major religious books. Food should be a variable, and we should carefully choose what we eat, to get all the nutrients we need (vitamins, minerals, protein etc.) in a balanced manner. We should focus on natural and seasonally available foods, with a large focus on vegetables and fruit. Yes, It should be as easy as that. Health is a natural state after all. > To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe. — **Marilyn vos Savant** To get more insight into the strong effects of training and fasting on health read the following books: [Body by Science: A Research Based Program for Strength Training, Body building, and Complete…](https://smile.amazon.com/Body-Science-Research-Strength-Training/dp/0071597174/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=) — Amazon [Fasting and Eating for Health: A Medical Doctor's Program for Conquering Disease](https://www.amazon.com/Fasting-Eating-Health-Medical-Conquering/dp/031218719X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1466664150&sr=8-2&keywords=fasting) — Amazon *Originally published on [Medium](https://medium.com/@FarisZacina/constants-and-variables-of-health-2eca3f45cc19).*