John Arts Abundant Living www.johnarts.co.nz

People regularly contact me with health problems they have had for many years. The most common would be joint problems, especially osteoarthritis, autoimmune problems, heart health management, low immunity and general fatigue.

If problems are undiagnosed the first thing I do is refer them to their GP for proper assessment. Once we know what we are dealing with we can then introduce a nutritional support programme to build up various healing systems and get their body to repair the problem as much as possible.

This may really be stating the obvious, but with most long term health problems there was a day when the first symptoms appeared. Prior to that day everything was fine, but that first twinge, that first sign of a problem happened and then everything started to change. Talk to any health professional and they will tell you that prevention is always best. No-one would disagree, but for many people they only really focus on their health when something goes wrong. The ‘if it ain't broke don't fix it' may apply to lawnmowers, but not to health.

If you have already developed more serious problems, please do not give up. I have helped many people who were at the point of just giving up, only to find after a few months that improvement was possible. The body has an amazing ability to heal, but only if it has the nutrients it needs. You cannot for example expect osteoarthritis to stop if you ignore the antioxidant deficiencies that cause and sustain the problem.

Of course the severity of the problem and the person's circumstances mean that any nutritional programme must be personalised. A programme should take into account medical history to ensure there are no conflicts between prescribed medicines and nutrients. The person's sex, age and weight are important considerations. Sometimes a more intensive temporary programme is needed before switching to a more permanent approach.

If you have experienced that first twinge then do something about it today. If you have a longstanding problem get some advice as in the majority of cases you can get an improvement.

John Arts is the founder of Abundant Health. For product information visit www.abundant.co.nz If you have questions or would like a free health plan you can contact John at john@johnarts.co.nz or phone 07 578
9051 or 0800 423 559. You can join his newsletter at www.johnarts.co.nz Read more from John at www.sunlive.co.nz