Physical Health—Te Taha Tinana

Abstract

The Māori model of health considers physical health as the cornerstone of Western medicine. Maslow’s understanding of homeostasis. Seligman’s PERMA model and vitality. The relationship between vitality and ageing, and the author’s experience after a heart attack: ‘You look like an old man.’ Telomeres, stress, and ageing—‘you are only as old as you feel’. Professor Elizabeth Blackburn (and her PhD student Carol Greider)’s Nobel Prize-winning research on telomerase. The concept of healthspan. Lifestyle choices and optimum health and wellbeing. Epigenetics and Dr David Sinclair’s book, Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To. Sir Harry Burns on the role of the environment and Glasgow effect. Tertiary prevention and the author’s experience. The science of nutrition and diet. The work of Professor Grant Schofield, author of What the Fat? and What the Fast?, who promotes a healthy fat, Mediterranean diet, with low carbohydrates and intermittent fasting. The science of sleep and its role in obesity.