Wellness Alaska
An Introduction
My name is Burl Sheldon. I’m a health coach, a health-science student, and a senior citizen. I created of this website for two purposes: 1) as a way to embrace and share the science — and danger — of our crisis of chronic disease, much of which is linked to the unhealthy Standard American Diet (SAD); and 2) to support health and wellness coaching, a field I view as invaluable to achieving health goals and avoiding Disease-Care, Inc.
Nature gives us whole nutritious foods which nurture the body. Yet, today a food-related chronic disease pandemic impacts about half of the U.S. populous. Current estimates suggest that 80-percent of chronic disease is preventable or reversible with diet and lifestyle modification.
Under the menu Food and Health, I’ve tried to make accessible and understandable some of the health-science. Here’s the short version: taking daily action to lower stressors, get some exercise, and eat whole food means more energy and the body fights disease better. As a result, on net we live longer.
This website describes how chronic “diseases,” such as obesity, type-2 diabetes, vascular diseases, kidney problems, and others are commonly rooted in diseased, poor functioning metabolism and the cellular problem of insulin resistance. That means: how well your cells convert food into life energy. The good news is the condition is reversible! (Read more about insulin resistance under Insulin and Metabolic Disease.)
For example, obesity or type-2 diabetes can be reversed. Tragically, Disease-Care, Inc. isn’t dialed in on “reversal.” Instead, they bring in big Pharma, which may indeed be life-saving — but when does the prescription end? In many cases the answer is “when you die.” In truth, many of our “providers” work within a system that simply is not interested in reversing the metabolic disease at the root of “chronic disease” (and they frequently know surprisingly little about human nutrition). For more about how a carefully controlled diet can reverse vascular disease or type-2 diabetes, look for “reversal” under the jump-links on the page Fats, Oils and Health (located under Food and Health).
The website is also structured to lead you directly to other Alaska-based health coaches — under the menu Alaska Health Coaches. It’s a diverse and professional field and can supplement and may replace some of our traditional “therapies.” People getting the coaching means making the personal lifestyle tweaks that allows them to achieve their goals, heal and accomplish greater wellbeing — instead of a life-time sentence of Pharma.
Like healthy eating, health coaching is another service of nature, perhaps as old as any: an active listener who holds space, gains understanding through inquiry, and supports the other (the client) as they assemble and embody their own path to greater wellness. Coaching is rooted in empathy, listening, questioning, new knowledge, creating action-steps — and making steady progress towards the client’s own values and dreams, one step at a time.
The three-pillar’s graphic on the left shows the interdependence of physical, mental and social factors in health. Numerous factors in our modern environment weaken these pillars! Some common themes that often improve human health and wellness are listed below:
Building social/community connections
Culturing simple daily habits that lower stressors (breathe!)
Elevating daily physical activity
Sound and sufficient sleep
Replacing the highly-processed, refined calories with Real food.
Not all health coaches have the same focus. For example, my health coaching certification is with Food Revolution Network (foodrevolution.org), which actively promotes the wide-ranging benefits of “plant-forward” eating. Each coach will possess unique life and work experience and differences in training that inform their coaching style. This website promotes the field as a way to support mental, physical and social health, reduce disease-risk, and strengthen wellness.
You might say that I’ve been smitten by the need for better, more holistic and personal alternatives to health and healing. Under the menu My Story, you can learn about my own path and thinking about the upside-down medical system, what I call “Disease-Care, Inc.” and its relationship to “The Colossus,” aka — the Standard American Diet (SAD).