For years I wanted to create a simple and elegant equation for health. Something easy to remember and similar to Einstein’s E = MC². Albert Einstein proposed mass–energy equivalence in 1905 but until he proved it, few believed it. I propose that like mass and matter...life, good health and a consciousness of supreme wellness are also equivalent to energy.

After all, we're all made from star dust and light.

Let’s analyze Einstein’s formula E = MC²

E or energy equals mass times velocity squared (the speed of light squared). The speed of light is a constant.

Speed of Light
299,792.458 kilometers per second
1.02 billion kilometers per hour
186,282.397 miles per second
11,176,943.8 miles per minute

To calculate the energy equivalence of any object with mass, you simply multiply its mass (weight) by the speed of light squared. How cool is that?

Like Einstein’s formula my equation for health submits to the sovereignty of nature. Nature is a dictator, like it or not.

H = (nf)²

H stands for health, n for nutrition and f for fitness. If we take the product of nutrition and fitness (n x f) and square that value (nf)², we get optimum health. But let’s clarify each letter of the equation in greater detail.

First, let’s define H because that’s our objective and the purpose of the equation. Health affects everyone everywhere, but what does “health” actually mean?

H = Optimum Functional Health

Health is a state. The quality of your “state” is equal to the quality of your nutrition and fitness. If you say someone is healthy, you’re literally saying they’re full of health, but what kind of health? Good or bad? Are they sick, morbidly obese or vertically ill? Are they functional, lean, energetic and vital? Are they truly well?

Optimum health is the ability to get what you want and need with energy and enthusiasm. That’s what real health is and why it’s important to understand and use this equation. It generates optimum health as an outcome because optimum health is equal to the sum of nutrition and fitness squared.

Optimum health is the ability to endure mental, emotional and physical stress. This is best achieved by being well-nourished and extremely fit, and, if we avoid irrational behavior. To minimize risk of damage here’s my advice. Accept reality. Accept that reality exists independent of your subjective perception of it. What “is” is. Reality doesn’t need our permission to exist. Bertrand Russell said, “Believe what is true, don’t believe what isn’t true, and if you can’t find out if it’s true or not, suspend judgment.”

Good health is a state of mind governed by intellect, positive emotion and objectivism. It’s the ability to recognize who and what we are. Are you self-directed? Do you have high self-esteem? If not, why not? You’re a homo sapien (wise man) with a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, and problem solving. Do you know how powerful you are? In my world “can’t” doesn’t exist.

An individual with excellent health is loaded with passion, ambition and drive. Know anyone like that? They’re clear about what they want and take the action necessary to achieve their goals, both short and long term, today and tomorrow. Good health is someone directed by logic headed in the direction of wellness. Progress is used as evidence.

Good health flows from a health centered consciousness. If you’re thinking, living, training, working, eating and sleeping optimum health, guess what you get as an outcome? A health centered consciousness goes deeper than anything you can imagine, much deeper for example than the deepest part of the world’s oceans (a small valley in the Mariana Trench called Challenger Deep).

Ok, that’s optimum health defined. Now let’s talk about n.

n = the science of Nutrition

Unlike faith nutrition is based on evidence and fact. In my equation for health n = Optimum Nutrition + Dietary Supplements. One without the other is incomplete and if one is omitted, the outcome of the equation will be negatively affected. Supplements are to the diet what carbon is to steel. Steel is stronger, more flexible and more resistant to rust than iron alone.

Nutrition includes a diet free of chemically altered food, mutagens, toxins, pathogens and contaminants. A diet that’s fresh, whole and reinforced with essential micronutrients and antioxidants. Our genome evolved from an ancient, physically active, omnivorous whole food past and is still dependent on the same.

The food we eat must be biochemically compatible with our genetic hardware, so that the influence of what we eat epigenetically, meaning “above” our genes, will have a beneficial influence on how our genes are individually expressed lifelong. As Bruce Lee so aptly stated, “Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.”

Next is the science of fitness. To satisfy the elements of our health equation, we have to combine the best possible nutrition with the best possible fitness.

f = the science of Fitness

Fitness that puts the E in Exercise and tears up the track! Good fitness is balanced and demands consistency! It includes a warm-up, resistance training, core training, cardio and stretching. Great fitness is precise, planned, structured, intense, tempered and performed with amazing skill. Everything most humans are capable of.

If you multiple great fitness by optimum nutrition and square that product, you my friend are holding excellent health in your hands. I can’t think of anyone anywhere who wouldn’t improve as a result of applying with purpose the fundamental scientific principles of nutrition and fitness.

If you encourage someone who’s infected, damaged or chronically ill to consume an ideal optimum diet, to reinforce that same diet with supplements, and to engage in a sound fitness program, they WILL eventually get well. They have to! But they must be persistent. They must stay on track and maintain their focus or their “state” of health will continue to decline.

So what's the equation for health?

H = (nf)²

Go ahead, say it out loud. H = (nf)². n is nutrition. f is fitness. You multiply these two forces together and square the product. If you’re doing both right and consistently the product is optimum health every time, but if not, logic dictates there must be something wrong with either your nutrition input (n) or fitness input (f) or both. That’s how you fix things in a rational world. You always go back to the premise, formula or equation and check your math. If your invention doesn’t work or the outcome isn't what you expected, don’t blame nature.

I don’t care who you are, or who you’re dealing with. If you get super fit the right way, as in slowly but surely, and if you eat clean and stick to a natural whole food diet that’s real, incredibly nutritious and compatible with YOUR Genome the product of such work is SUPER HEALTH!

Let’s face it, health is wealth and wealth without health sucks (like gravity). Optimum health is a just and honest reward determined by our individual commitment to sound quality nutrition and the best possible fitness. Anything less and now you’ve got your own personal health formula for obesity, chronic disease and premature death. Remember, health is a state, good or bad. Which one do you prefer?

Like Einstein, let’s be fearless and encourage everyone to rely on the Science of Living Well, but more importantly, let’s live the science ourselves. Let’s be mindful of what optimum health really is. Focus on creating optimum health rather than treating disease. Prevent what is inevitable otherwise.

The next time you hear anyone complaining about their health, listen carefully, then explain the equation for health. Most likely, their math is incorrect.

H = (nf)²

Photo by Sarah Pflug from Burst

As always, stay well and live free!

Dr.C