We live on an amazing planet. What new, undiscovered worlds wait to entice us? A tranquil lake in the Canadian Rockies? A painting on a wall of the Louvre? A smile of recognition on our new grandchild’s face? Will we have the chance to enjoy these “mountaintop experiences,” or will time run out for us?
What if we knew in advance what our final years would look like? Can we imagine a day when we are too frail to drive our cars? Can we imagine a time when we can no longer recognize a place we’ve been to a thousand times before, or can no longer hear our granddaughter’s sweet voice? Can we imagine not doing all the things we’ve worked our whole lives to be able to do? The great irony of aging is that we may finally have everything we need materially, but no longer be able to enjoy it and share it with those we love most.
We Baby Boomers have redefined every phase of life we’ve passed through. I believe we will redefine aging as well. We will choose how we will live our later years; we will choose how modern medicine will treat us; we will even choose how we will die. The loss of dignity that so often characterizes later life is something we Baby Boomers will confront, challenge, and transform.
Today, despite the current statistics and the common belief that tells us we are living longer, healthier lives, it is clear that we are not. Degenerative conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, and stroke are causes of serious concern. Aging is also a degenerative disease. Fading vitality, wrinkles, sagging skin, obesity, gray hair or no hair, and diminished sex drive are just a few of the symptoms of an unhealthy body. The signs of aging began decades ago, but they went unnoticed. Aging happens quietly and cunningly, and it speeds up with time, startling us with its abrupt and dramatic changes that weren’t there yesterday but are here today.
As for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, and stroke, the statistics favor the odds that many of us will suffer from at least one of these conditions. I believe that unlike our parents, who accepted these as unavoidable, we Baby Boomers in our hearts are passionately committed to not going there. As a result of this intense desire, we are drawing new forms of health-care technology, from both traditional and complementary medicine, into our realm. We are also being allowed to rediscover precious ancient knowledge to empower us to achieve what we so strongly desire.
The information in this book is truly groundbreaking, an advance in how to resolve the problems of aging and disease.
No other system of wellness is as balanced or as complete.
As health educators, my team of Body Ecologists and I have been on the front lines of some of the most challenging issues facing people today, from autism to obesity to immunological disorders. Because we work every day with real people with real problems, we are intimately aware of emerging health trends and concerns.
The Body Ecology Way of Life is not my creation. Around our offices we always say that you can see “the hand of God” in this work. This knowledge is here because it’s time. It’s time for us to understand the missing pieces that create genuine health, not the illusory idea of health we currently have. We age because of ignorance, because of choice, because we live in a world that supports early aging and degenerative conditions.
Body Ecology has been given the mission to change ignorance to understanding when it comes to the way we eat and care for our bodies. We exist to be a catalyst for creating a paradigm shift toward the true science of health and healing in this world—a paradigm shift that will benefit our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren for generations to come.
— Donna Gates