WikiBody - The Owner's Manual For Your Body:About
From WikiBody - The Owner's Manual For Your Body
The goal of WikiBody is to provide, for free, the sum of human knowledge about the care of one's own body. It's meant to provide a foundation for living a healthy life.
[edit] Why Your Body Needs An Owner's Manual
If you got a new car, but you knew it was the only car you could ever afford, what would you do? Knowing that you would spend the rest of your life driving that car, that you were stuck with it, and that it would take you everywhere? You'd probably take extra special care of it, read the owner's manual five times, and make sure that nothing happened to it. (That's the story that Warren Buffett often told, called The Fable of the Genie.)
That's the position we're in with our bodies. We only have one, and you'll spend the rest of your life in it. The problem is, our bodies don't come with owner's manuals. And many people treat their bodies poorly, suffering from low energy levels, becoming ill, and ultimately, dying early.
If we are to reach our highest potential, we need to take care of our bodies so we can live, think, and work efficiently. The goal of this Wiki is to provide, for free, the sum of human knowledge about the care of one's own body. It's meant to provide a foundation for living a healthy life. Please read it and take it to heart, and help improve it by adding to it.
[edit] Introduction
The focus of WikiBody is to provide the basic foundation of knowledge for living a healthy life. It's not an encyclopedia; it's a health education book in the form of a wiki. It's organized by how we live our life: how we sleep, eat, work, think, and move. Other health books are organized by listing organs and their function, but are not necessarily practical. This wiki is organized to be actionable each step of the way, with links to reference materials to organs and biological functions where relevant.
The following quote identifies the most effective ways of taking care of your body in order to avoid the most common diseases:
Of the ten leading causes of illness and death in the US, seven could be greatly reduced if the following lifestyle habits were modified -- alcohol abuse, lack of exercise, poor diet, smoking, and unhealthy maladaptive responses to stress and tension. -- Former US Surgeon General Julius B. Richmond, M.D.
All these areas are covered in the sections below. Alchohol and smoking are covered in the Drugs section. Lack of Exercise, Poor Diet and Managing Stress each have their own sections.
