Dr. Andrew Belaveshkin

 The biggest threat to your health is the loss of faith and the ability to change anything. Well over half of our health depends on our desires and conscious efforts. Health is a way of thinking, self-identification, a drive for self-fulfillment, a will for life. When we lose this will, we lose not only our health but also ourselves. Everything we do today is either an investment in our future or a loan for our future. Improving our health today makes us healthier tomorrow, in a month, in ten years. However, if we constantly borrow from our own health by undersleeping, overeating, and overindulging, the time to pay will inevitably come — in the form of untimely aging, illnesses, and suffering. As Socrates mentioned philosophically, “health isn’t everything, but everything without health is nothing.” Health pyramid. Imagine an unhealthy person: they are overweight, eat disorderly and chaotically, don’t get enough activity, rest too much, have no desire or mood to l...

We have always strived to understand what causes problems in our bodies and what we need to do to preserve our health. Humanity’s position also has changed: from a person passive before threats to an active person who controls their health.     Health as holiness and cleanliness. Since ancient times, people have tried to expel illness from the body through different methods: through practices of exorcising spirits or demons, atoning for sins, and “unclean” actions. Illness was considered an evil spirit or a divine punishment for breaching specific rules. Such a perception of diseases has deep evolutionary roots. For early mammals, their sense of smell played an essential role in survival: they learned to find and assess their food by smell. If something smelled bad, it had to be avoided. Good smells caused positive emotions, while bad, dirty, and dangerous ones caused negative emotions. It so happens that our higher nerve centers formed in place of ancient cente...

  The study of anatomy and physiology started in the Renaissance period, and since then, many researchers have regarded the body as a peculiar type of mechanism; the heart is a pump, blood vessels are pipes, joints and tendons are blocks and gears. “Health”, then, entails the correct functioning of this mechanism; in other words, the lack of disruptions and diseases. Hence, treatment means quickly fixing a malfunction so that the person in question can proceed with their usual lifestyle. Is atherosclerotic plaque blocking an artery? You just need to place a stent that widens the arterial lumen, and the disease will be cured. Alas, the reality is much more complex. Largely, the “either healthy or ill” approach is still present today whenever patients’ complaints are devalued and multiple pre-existing diseases (or conditions that do not correspond to the criteria of an “illness”) are ignored. Essentially, you can turn to someone for help only when your disease is alread...

  The resource approach involves assessing health as a system of interrelated physical, mental and social resources, each of which can be determined and changed. I begin every form of health improvement with a health assessment — it is similar to how we define a patient’s health based on tests. In the primary prevention stage, we should not be reassured by the absence of diseases. Imagine the future: you get tested and come to a doctor. He not only shows concern regarding your HIV or hepatitis analyses, but also thoroughly reviews the results of other tests, analyzes the dynamic of your sleep, physical activity, and multiple biochemical indicators, and then nods glumly: Young man, it seems that you have begun to eat less fish? Your levels of selenium and iodine have decreased. However, you eat enough vegetables, as I can see by your blood carotene levels. Strength tests show optimal numbers, but insulin sensitivity has lowered. Do you have a sedentary lifestyle? Yo...

  Why are so many old buildings sturdier than modern ones? When an architect cannot calculate the load precisely, they strive to include redundancy in the design, making the walls and slabs thicker and more reliable. This redundancy leads to longevity. When I taught histology (the science of tissue and cell structure or “anatomy under a microscope”, if you wish), I often demonstrated to my students the existing “redundancy” of practically every organ and cell. Indeed, we have a number of nerve, muscle, and connective tissue cells that exceed the necessary minimum several times over. If needed, a human being can live with one lung, with only half of their intestines and liver, with one kidney, and even with a defect in a significant part of their brain. The redundancy principle is linked to the existence of more elements than what are needed for functioning, as well as the redundancy of channels for the supply of information, and its excessive volume. All living bein...

The biggest threat to your health is the loss of faith and the ability to change anything. Well, over half of our health depends on our desires and conscious efforts. Health is a way of thinking, self-identification, a drive for self-fulfillment, a will for life. When we lose this will, we lose not only our health but also ourselves. Everything we do today is either an investment in our future or a loan for our future. Improving our health today makes us healthier tomorrow, in a month, in ten years. However, if we constantly borrow from our own health by undersleeping, overeating, and overindulging, the time to pay will inevitably come — in the form of untimely aging, illnesses, and suffering. As Socrates mentioned philosophically, “health isn’t everything, but everything without health is nothing.” Health pyramid. Imagine an unhealthy person: they are overweight, eat disorderly and chaotically, don’t get enough activity, rest too much, have no desire or mood to learn and develop, hav...