Welcome back to Unstress for 2020, in this first episode I lay out the plan for the year. It is clear we have reached a tipping point in our world and communities where some serious change needs to occur. I believe that change is going to come from the ground up, I hope to inspire, empower and support you in making positive changes this year for your health and the health of our planet.

Selected Links from the Episode:

Unstress mission statement

Unstress: The Year in Review 2019

Download the PDF transcription

Dr Ron Ehrlich: Hello and welcome to Unstress. I'm Dr Ron Ehrlich and a happy new year. This is 2020, now 2020 interestingly is a term that is often used to describe perfect vision and I hope it describes what 2020 will be for all of us - clearer, perfect vision about where we are headed as an individual, as a community and as a nation, and as a global community as well. This is an opportunity for me to kick start the year with a short podcast which outlines where we are. I mean, the mission statement as I articulated two years ago when I started doing this Unstress podcast was simply this. I see life as a balancing beam if you like, on one side of the balancing beam are the stresses in life that have the potential to break us down. Anything I do, I believe that has the ability to compromise our immune system or to promote chronic inflammation is a stressor.

Dr Ron Ehrlich: And to that effect, I've been focusing on the five stressors, which has guided my clinical practice over the last 35 years. It has also guided the book that I wrote 'A Life Less Stressed: the five pillars of health and wellness'. On the one hand there are five stresses and they are emotional, environmental, postural, nutritional and dental stress. And to my regular listeners, you will be familiar with why that is important. So that's one side of the balancing beam on the other side of the balancing beam, are the pillars of health that build resilience. And arguably there's never been a more important time in our world, in our lives to build resilience and we need a structure to do that as well. So focusing on the five pillars of health, which include sleep, breathe, nourish, move, and think are an excellent way of building health and wellness into your life.

Dr Ron Ehrlich: So on one side we're identifying and minimizing the stresses in life that have the potential to compromise our health. And on the other side we have those factors which will help us build resilience. And in between that, the pivot on which that balancing beam exists is our genes. And, and we are not victims to our genes because another aspect of our genes is epigenetics. And that is the way our genes express themselves. Now if thoughts are things and they are, there are transmitters which attach onto cell membranes and cause our genes to express themselves in a particular way. Then on the other side of the scale, uh, nutrients and environmental toxins that also have the potential to attach onto cell membranes and cause our genes to express themselves in a certain way. So that if you like is the balancing beam. Now another aspect that has always intrigued me and living in Sydney, Australia, living in Australia in this time where we are ravaged by the reality of climate change.

Dr Ron Ehrlich: I also have been interested over the last 10, 15 years or more to explore the politics of healthcare and the influence of the chemical food, fossil fuel and pharmaceutical industry in all levels of healthcare and government. And I think that is something which we should all be engaged in and be aware of. Now while reflecting on last year, I noted, and if you go back to the last episode of last year where we did the year in review, I focused on regenerative agriculture. Uh, primarily last year. In fact, I did. I think we did nine or 10 episodes on that very subject. And I honestly believe we each need to be in engaged in agriculture because you know,