Its Not as Simple as How Energetic You Are….

The concept of vitality, also called “adaptive energy,” is central to Nutritional Balancing Science. Dr. Lawrence Wilson, MD — one of the doctors who helped develop Nutritional Balancing Science, calls it the single most important concept in nutritional balancing science. It seems like a simple enough concept but in fact it is commonly misunderstood. It is useful to get the concept clear and understand how changing vitality affects us as we heal.

In our ordinary, imprecise language, we often say someone has high vitality because they are “energetic” or always moving or perhaps need little sleep. This is to be contrasted with the true meaning of the word.

In Nutritional Balancing vitality is related to the concept of ‘life force’ or ‘chi’ from the Chinese, or ‘prana’ in Hinduism. This is a universal life energy that permeates the air, water, and our environment in general; it is what distinguishes the living from the dead.  Nutritional Balancing sees vitality as the body’s ability to take in, store and use this life force energy that it ultimately gets from the environment.

Each person starts life with a given vitality level, and some begin with more than others. Living well allows a person to continually replenish and avoid excessive loss of life force energy, while excess stress or poor living habits will cause it to dissipate rapidly and the consequence is often rapid ageing and early death.

Vitality according to NB is related to this life force energy, and to the body’s ability to generate energy, but it is not exactly the same as energy – it is more like a force (as in, “May the force be with you.”)  Three factors help determine a person’s vitality level; 1) the proper functioning of the  “fuel system” or ability to burn fuel to make energy, i.e. the digestive organs and chemical processes working on a basic physical level, 2) the oxidation rate or the speed of the burning of the fuel. This is like the tune of an engine — it needs to be correct otherwise energy gets wasted; and finally 3) enzyme strength / efficiency is a major factor because the body’s chemical processes are blocked or inefficient when enzymes lack the correct mineral in the operative position. Nutritional Balancing works at all three levels to enhance the total vitality of a person.  

This distinction above is important. After all, a person can produce more physical energy for living or getting things done by speeding up their oxidation rate through use of hormones or stimulants, and yet their overall vitality may not improve. In fact it can even get worse.  Stimulation can come from toxins or excesses of certain nutrients, for example copper or mercury, not just drugs or hormones. Stimulated people may appear healthy but then fall ill with a serious disease.  This sort of thing in fact happens often in our society. Clearly, true vitality is more than being able to have a high energy output.

True vitality relates to the ability of the body to produce and use energy to carry out all functions including digestion, immune function, repair and regeneration, detoxification and everything else needed to stay in balance. In a person with high vitality, all these processes are carried out in a precise and orderly way; repairs are not neglected in order to keep up a high energy output physically. In fact a person with high vitality may experience fatigue more readily than one with lower vitality!

High vitality involves a certain coordination or ‘wisdom’ to the body’s overall functioning. This is called by Dr. Wilson  “the body’s priorities” or the “body’s wisdom.” Another author calls it the “innate intellect,” or the “inner physician.” The universal life force energy in fact is deemed to be imbued with this intelligence. This can be hard for people to believe. After all, why is there illness at all then? Clearly this is due to the fact that the body must still have its needs met!  The principle that there is this innate wisdom is proven true over and over again by people healing from some very difficult, even lifelong illnesses just by providing what the body needs and letting it heal itself. True, providing the needed elements can at times be challenging, but once this is done, it tends to be simply a matter of time and patience.

Now for a minor difficulty that is very important to understand. Vitality is not always felt; it can be but does not have to be. Vitality is an ability to respond, sometimes with great force. A person with high vitality might spike a higher fever, or generate more inflammation as part of the healing process than another.  This is an important reason for the rise and fall of symptoms for those on a Nutritional Balancing program. If done well enough, an NB program always increases a person’s vital force but this may be only briefly sensed, because soon the body proceeds with a healing episode and symptoms flare up obscuring the feeling of higher vitality. Hence, the Nutritional Balancing journey is sometimes a bit of a rollercoaster ride, but the general direction is always toward higher vitality and better function.  After a few years, the higher vitality is felt more continuously, but it may be a more subtle feeling than what one had imagined. Often it is simply a feeling of wellbeing, calmness and happiness that was never there before.

Article by Sheila Dobson, NC

All articles are for educational purposes only. Please consult your qualified health professional for individualized guidance.