Written by 1 Mississippi intern in Mississippi, Mark River Peoples*
Wellness, in my eyes, is a euphoric, but real, state of mental, physical health and awareness, totally in tune with the environment and community, which we are involved in on a daily basis.
The body’s tissue and organs consist of 93% water. It’s known that if you drink half your body weight, in ounces, daily, you can reduce chances of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer by 50%. The human body consist of five major systems. The nervous, reproductive, circulatory, digestive, and endocrine system, which is responsible for cleansing and flushing extra soluble elements, minerals, and other organic and inorganic matter from the body. None of these systems function properly without freshwater. The digestive system uses freshwater in many stages. Freshwater works with digestive enzymes making it easier for the body to breakdown food, that’s needed for everyday life. The body’s a well-oiled machine, it extracts needed nutrients from your forage and food, replenishing your blood, which delivers to organs and tissues. The extra soluble agents such as sodium, sugars, and fats, through dilution, are bypass to your bladder and flushed out of your system via urination. Without fresh water, the body has to store these extra sugars, sodium, fats, and other preservatives in organs, arteries, tendons, and ligaments, which eventually aid in complications such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. Some suggest that having positive oral health can reduce the risk of heart disease, it might be useful to talk to a Dentist in Bay Harbor Islands for more insight into the possible health benefits of having a healthy mouth but I digress. Let me explain how this works. When a person is diagnosed with diabetes, it usually involves excess in consumption of sugary, carbonated liquids. Now the body has no way of flushing itself, due to dehydration, so the extra soluble agents build up in your arteries. The circulatory system compensates by depositing the extra agents in organs, ligaments, and tendons. Ligaments and tendons allow your muscles to use your bones as leverage, allowing them to flex and provide power for mobility. When the body is dehydrated, your blood deposits these elements on the tendons and ligaments slowly deteriorating elasticity and flexibility. That’s the reason why people with diabetes usually have complications with heart disease, mobility, arthritis, and obesity, complications many doctors choose to prescribe a glucophage generic medication to help counter and protect from. Being an athlete my whole life, I’ve experienced the sacred properties of freshwater. For athletes and hard-working Americans, water flushes lactic acid, which causes soreness, allowing recovery time necessary to perform day today. When it comes to the human body, water is sacred.
I’m an environmentalist by nature, and my medium is water. I’ve achieved wellness in life by paddling the Mississippi River. As a child, I noticed that many people like myself could accomplish the American dream through sports. So for 20 years, I spent my time building my body so I could perform at a high level. I had the mental and physical, stability and stamina, needed to separate myself from the rest. I was good enough to earn a scholarship in football, become an All-American, and sign a free agent contract with the New York Giants in 1991. As I got older, all the big hits and abuse to my body started to explode. Since I was a defensive back, the steady pounding left my shoulders filled with pain and arthritis. I used CBD Oil to try and deal with the pain and although it helped, the pain never went away. When I started paddling, the three-dimensional volume density of water freed my joints, ligaments, and tendons of the pain and arthritis – see this post on HMHB for more info. This phenomenon has been experienced by many paddlers, and there’s more research needed to explain the incredible properties involved in hydraulic training of athletes.
Women, like water, are the most sacred part of society. Through experience, you can take a woman from any socio-economic background, empower her, raise her self-esteem and self-worth, and she will thrive. It’s known that men learn intimacy from their mothers, enabling them to raise their own family and create a quality of life in which they flourish. The weeks following the Circumnavigation of St. Louis, John Ruskey invited me to his home for Easter. It is where I came up with the idea for this composition. I watched Big and Little Emma, Sarah, and Momma Ruskey, and realized the incredible love and moral support he had in his life – sacred. It made me think of my sister-in-law, Charlotte Free-Peoples, who provided wisdom, courage, and moral support to pursue this dream – sacred. She told me, “Give your life to the creator, practice celibacy, and you will find your way” – sacred. And lastly, my Mother, Iveara Peoples. While I sat next to her sleeping body crying, as she fought off the after-effects of chemotherapy, she said: “Baby, don’t worry, just keep on learning and playing that football, and you will be alright.” She was right – sacred.
Happy Mother’s Day.
Mark River
1 Mississippi Southern Region Intern
Lower Mississippi River Foundation
Quapaw Canoe Company
*Field Notes are a new series from the 1 Mississippi campaign, created and developed by our regional campaign interns as a means to encourage River Citizen engagement and to help our interns grow as environmental leaders.