Emboldened by this success, and partly to distinguish
themselves from charlatans who were practicing magic
more than medicine, Western medical science began arrogantly
rejecting age-old treatments and cures whose
function could not be scientifically explained by the
then-current level of technology.
Why We Need a Revolution 37
*This also explains why direct selling (person-to-person versus television-to-person or storeto-
person) is often the best way to explain a new product or service that challenges an established
belief. When most people are confronted with such a challenge, they simply change the
channel or continue to walk down the aisle—something that politeness prevents when listening
to a friend or acquaintance.
The basic unit in biology, the cell, is about 20 micrometers in diameter.
It takes about 10,000 human cells to cover the head of a pin.
For physical reasons, an optical microscope cannot resolve two points
that are closer together than approximately one-half of the wavelength
of the illuminating light—and an individual bacterial cell, for example,
is approximately one-tenth the wavelength of visible light.17
Today we know that the critical biochemical functions
performed by exercise, vitamins, minerals, and nutritional
supplements take place on a molecular versus a cellular
level. And because each cell is composed of trillions
of molecules, these functions cannot even be detected
with an optical microscope.
Until the relatively recent invention of the electron microscope,
which is still not as widespread as the optical microscope was in the
1800s, scientists were unable to study the molecular structure of cells
and how they function.
This led most Western medical school training to virtually
ignore, to this day, the importance of nutrition and the effect
of vitamins, minerals, and natural supplements.
Meanwhile, during the twentieth century, while Western medicine
was ignoring the importance of diet and exercise in preventing disease
and aging, the amount of exercise performed by individuals declined
due to labor-saving devices in the home and to machines in the
workplace. The quantity and variety of vitamins and minerals in our
diets declined as food became more processed and less varied. And
the percentage of fat in our diets increased by 75 percent—from
about 20 percent of our calories in 1910 to about 35 percent of our
calories today. These and other factors contributed to the epidemic
in obesity and ill health we have today in the United States, sowing
the seeds for the wellness revolution that is about to take place.
The Wellness Revolution Is about More
than Just Making Money
In the rest of this book we will examine the increasing size of the
wellness industry and the thousands of fortunes that will be created
through wellness.
38 THE NEW WELLNESS REVOLUTION
As you read ahead and start to think about your place in
this emerging industry, keep in mind that there is something
even more important than your personal economic
reward—your impact on the world in which we live.
Economically, we live in halcyon days that have far surpassed the
wildest dreams of our forebears, who fought so hard and lost so
much to create what we have today. Yet due to our plague of obesity
and ill health, we begin this millennium with more human unhappiness
than at any time in our history.
Fully 65 percent of Americans are trapped within their own prison
of being malnourished and overweight, and almost half of those,
about 30 percent, are clinically obese—overweight to a point where
they are hopeless and have no idea where to turn for help.
These Americans are malnourished to the point that they live with
constant headaches, body pain, stomach distress, heartburn, fatigue,
arthritis, and hundreds of other ailments—ailments that contemporary
medicine wrongly tells them to accept as symptoms of advancing
age. Medical companies sell consumers billions of dollars worth
of products (e.g., aspirin, laxatives) that treat only their symptoms
while ignoring their cause. A similar situation exists in Western Europe,
Taiwan, and most other developed nations, and it is emerging
in China as chronic fatigue syndrome.
However, this is about to change, thanks to the wellness revolution.
Never before in history has a business opportunity had the potential
to have such an incredibly positive impact on the lives of its
customers.
Why We Need a Revolution 39
40 THE NEW WELLNESS REVOLUTION
Before Proceeding to the Next Chapter
Action Plan for Entrepreneurs and
Wellness/Health Professionals
1. Make a list of 10 potential wellness businesses that interest
you.
2. Assess how you could participate in each of these areas:
a. Entrepreneur
b. Investor
c. Distributor
3. Analyze each business area with respect to the five characteristics
of pervasive industries (outlined in the introduction).
4. Choose the three best areas for you to pursue, based on
your prior skills and experiences.
5. Analyze why each of these three areas of wellness business
opportunity does or does not yet exist. For those that do
exist, analyze your potential competition and the opportunity
for growth in each area.
6. Rethink your choices of your three best areas of wellness
business opportunity, and perhaps choose a different three
based on your analysis thus far.
Now read chapters 2 through 9, and at the end of each
chapter, think about dropping and replacing any or all three of
your chosen areas of wellness business opportunity.