Every healthy human being is born with a miraculously integrated body and mind. The lungs draw in essential oxygen to enrich the blood. As you can see in the video above, a tiny, perfect heart pumps blood through a vast network of vessels to every system and organ. The digestive system begins to turn food into fuel. Our muscles and bones propel us through the world, allowing us to stand, then walk, then play and work. The brain constantly takes in new information, and in response, adapts its way of working. At the end of each day, we recharge and reset the system by sleeping. Every human body comes equipped with a self-contained set of tools that could help us to live 100 years, maybe longer.


How We Sabotage Our Health
But early on, our environment, our culture, and our own free will conspire to test this marvelous organism—sometimes to the breaking point. There are people who maintain their health and live long, fruitful lives, sustaining minimal wear and tear. They are already living by "The 9 Visual Rules of Wellness." But others among us push it to the limit. Instead of eating to sustain our bodies, we eat more and richer foods than we need, for pleasure. Instead of walking to nearby destinations, we drive our cars, then sit most of the day. Some of us smoke. Some of us drink too much. Many of us allow negative feelings and stress to rule our thoughts. Not many of us get adequate sleep. The wrong choices trap us in a lifestyle that actually endangers our life.

The effects of these choices compromise every system that keeps us well. The damage is not pretty, as you will see in the groundbreaking 3D and animated visualizations produced from real human scans by TheVisualMD for this special online preview. After years of a fatty diet, arteries become narrow and clogged with plaque, like those you saw in the video, raising the risk of cardiovascular disease and sudden heart attacks. Getting too little exercise allows fat to build up around our organs and beneath our skin; lean muscle shrinks away. Smoking fills our lungs with pollution, damaging our health in myriad ways. Losing too much sleep can affect our memory, and disrupt an important hormone cycle that prevents us from overeating. And too much stress compromises our body's natural immune system, the very tool that would help us combat much of the other damage.


Reclaiming the Good Life
There is good news, however, and you will see authentic evidence of that, too. The brilliantly adaptive human body is also capable of stunning recovery. We can never recapture the robust health of our earliest days, but it is rarely too late to make changes that can reverse damage to our abused organs and tissues. Taking steps to eat well, exercise, modify our negative habits, care for ourselves and celebrate life will make a visible difference. It could extend a lifetime by weeks, or years. We hope that seeing how "The 9 Visual Rules of Wellness" can guide us to better health will inspire everyone to embrace a richer, more balanced way of living.


The 9 Visual Rules of Wellness

Rule 1: Baseline Your Health

Rule 2: Define Your Wellness Mission

Rule 3: Develop and Maintain Nutritional Balance

Rule 4: Get Aerobic and Anaerobic Exercise

Rule 5: Never Smoke. If You Smoke Now, Quit

Rule 6: Take a Moderate Approach

Rule 7: Make Sleep a Priority

Rule 8: Manage Your Stress

Rule 9: Embrace Joy