There are a lot of chronic conditions that you can live with and still get by. However, untreated, these conditions can cause a lot of problems down the road. For example, gluten problems can lead to cancer, miscarriage, etc. Under- or over-methylation can lead to problems. Toxicity can lead to cancer. Hypothyroidism has some long-term effects. Chronic vitamin deficiencies can cause a host of problems. Basically anything that's off can cause problems if it's off for a long time as you age.
On the gluten-free forum that I read sometimes, I see so many people who realize later in life that they were gluten intolerant or celiac (which caused many of their problems) or that they had some easily treatable condition, the damage of which has built up over the years.
That's why I think it's important to make sure that you're healthy for the long run, as soon as possible. You want to make sure that if you keep living the way you're living, you'll stay healthy for a long time.
But what can you use as an indicator? How can you tell whether you've caught any of those innumerable hard-to-diagnose but harmful-in-the-long-run conditions? How can you tell that you're healthy enough that you won't have repercussions later in life for something you could have easily corrected?
You can't test it by whether you get cancer or something, because you wouldn't be able to notice that until it actually happened.
Instead, I think there *are* indicators you can use to check that your body is healthy and that you're living a good lifestyle for your body, one that you can take with you into a disease-free future (i.e. if you keep doing what you're doing, you'll have a low chance of preventable disease as you age).
Some potential health indicators are:
-You have enough energy to exercise a regular amount, being able to exercise without too much fatigue.
-You look healthy.
-Your face looks healthy: no circles under eyes, clear skin.
-No crease in ear lobes, which can indicate artery disease and increased risk of heart attack.
-Your facial features look normal. eyebrows are thick for their full duration, don't thin out around 3/4 of the way there.
-I bet Chinese facial reading would have a lot to offer, and indeed Chinese diagnostics in general. I love how Chinese medicine does diagnostics from the body (how it looks, excretions, pulse, colors, temperature, etc.) rather than relying on expensive, time-costing, and largely insensitive lab tests!
-Gums don't bleed.
-Resilient to stress, can deal with problems.
-Emotional control, can be who you want to be (not only does your emotional life effect your health; but emotional processing issues can indicate health problems such as vitamin imbalances, heavy metal toxicity, food sensitivities, and a lot of other things).
-No depression, even without antidepressants or even herbal mood remedies. There are a lot of health issues that can cause depression. For me, my mood is like the canary in the coal mine - it goes anytime things are off with my body. I knew something was wrong a few weeks before I noticed my Lyme disease EM rash. That's why I prefer not to use antidepressants - it is good to have mood as a warning sign if things are wrong in the body.
-Sleeping a normal amount, having a good circadian rhythm.
-Large, well-formed bowel movements. This is a huge one. Mark Konlee goes into a lot of detail about what are healthy bowel movements.
Here's what Konlee counts as indicators of poor health: 1. Lack of Good Appetite, 2. Lack of Good Digestion, 3. Toxic colon - "unhealthy" stools and urine, 4. Low body temperature (below 98.6° F), 5. Lack of deep restful sleep.
So I guess the corollary is that the following are indicators of good health: 1. Good Appetite, 2. Good Digestion, 3. Healthy Stools and Urine, 4. Normal Body Temperature (about 98.6F), 5. Deep, Restful Sleep.
Ideally, I think medicine should be about promoting what keeps us healthy (detoxification, proper nourishment, circulation, etc.) rather than waiting for problems to occur and trying to fix them, when the problems are much more easily prevented than treated.
Focusing on indicators of good health can be even more motivating than merely following a list of things you're supposed to do for "prevention," (such as taking certain amounts of certain vitamins or exercising a certain amount). Looking at health indicators gives you something positive to aim for, rather than just trying to avoid illness.
Moreover, you actually can notice changes in your health indicators (for example, your skin might get softer when you get enough essential fatty acids), whereas it might be hard to stick with a prevention program (eat this vitamin and decrease your risk of heart disease) if you don't notice changes in your body and if the reward is far removed.
Focusing on positive health indicators gives a faster reward, since many of these indicators can be improved on a scale of days to months.