As the old saying goes, “Money can’t buy happiness.” Unfortunately, it can’t buy health either. Too many Americans suffer debilitating problems that doctors fail to relieve—and all the copayments in the world can’t make these disorders disappear. While drugs sometimes offer temporary relief, dangerous side effects can cause new concerns. But there are safer, more natural ways to treat illness and heal the body.

In Health Is Wealth, Dr. Scott C. Senne shares his secrets to a wholesome life. Included are chapters on clean water, sound nutrition, detoxifying fasts, exercise, sunlight, sleep, supplements, emotions, social relationships, home environment, and much, much more. In each chapter, the author offers practical, easy-to-follow recommendations that can make a big difference to you and your family. With Health Is Wealth, you will enjoy the greatest gift of all—the gift of vibrant health.

Scott C. Senne, DC, LAc, CES, completed his bachelor of science degree at North Dakota State University and his doctorate in Chiropractic Medicine from Northwestern Health Sciences University. He is also a licensed acupuncturist and a clinical exercise specialist who has treated thousands of patients. A recognized authority in the field of natural health, Dr. Senne has lectured extensively and is a contributing writer to Runner’s World magazine.

A Word About Gender,

Acknowledgments,

Preface,

Introduction, 

1. Water, 

Remember when “Don’t drink the water” referred to foreign countries?

2. Food, 

Why are there so many malnourished people in the richest country?

3. Fasting,

You deserve a real break today.

4. Movement and Exercise, 

How to keep moving for health and well-being.

5. Sunlight, 

Let the sun shine!

6. Posture, 

Avoiding the crooked road.

7. Sleeping and Resting, 

Flowing with the rhythm of life.

8. Bowel Health, 

Can we talk about something else?

9. The Mind, 

Is it all in your head?

10. Building an Emotionally Satisfying Family Life, 

It all begins in the home.

11. Social Relationships, 

People really do need people.

12. The Soul, 

Creating a loving relationship with God.

13. Preparing, Storing, and Eating Your Food, 

Getting the most out of your meals.

14. Beauty and Hygiene, 

Mirror, mirror on the wall . . .

15. Clothing,

What to wear.

16. Household Cleaners and the Home Environment, 

I don’t do windows.

17. Household Electricity, 

What’s your frequency?

18. Nutritional Supplements, 

Hey, what’s this green stuff?

19. Integrative and Alternative Therapies, 

The many roads to wellness.

20. Treating Minor Injuries and Illness, 

Tending to life’s minor discomforts.

21. Putting It All Together,

That was easy!

Conclusion, 

References, 

Resources, 

Suggested Reading List, 

About the Author, 

Index, 

There are a lot of diet, health, and exercise books on the market today. Many

promise to provide a quick cure if you use a particular piece of exercise

equipment, take a new pill, apply the latest cream, or follow a special diet.

Authors of health books often admonish their readers for not knowing

which way to turn, or blame drug companies and doctors for being ill-informed

or for simply turning a blind eye to proper healthcare. This book is not about

pointing fingers or making any individual or group feel bad. Instead, it is

designed to help you understand why you become sick, and what you can do to

attain, regain, and maintain excellent health the natural way. This is not an arduous

book to get through and you won’t need to feverishly take notes and go

through a box of highlighters. I wrote this book as if I were talking to my

patients. I would like you to view me as a friend, doctor, and teammate regarding

your healthcare issues. I will take this journey with you down the road of

health, and if you follow my easy-to-implement suggestions along the way, you

will achieve excellent health by the end of the journey.

How many people actually wake up every day and say “I feel great!” Such

people are ready to take on each day with a fresh enthusiasm. They are on no

medications and they look as good as they feel. They are vibrant most days of

the year, and they may even seem to be getting younger instead of older. Well,

there are a lot of people who do not fall into this category! This is unfortunate,

because so many more people could wake up saying, “I feel great!” You have the

power to choose the type of person you become.

Our bodies are efficient machines, capable of performing great feats of

strength and endurance when called upon. In most cases, though, modern life

does not require us to perform feats of strength and endurance for our survival.

Instead, each day, we are required to manage an intricate balancing of jobs, family,

and friends that can leave us feeling stressed-out. Unlike a real machine,

however, the human body does have the ability to repair and heal itself. Did you

know that all of the cells in the body except the nerve cells actually reproduce

throughout the course of a day, week, month, and year? We get a new body

every year! Doesn’t it make sense to take care of ourselves as well as we possibly

can? I want my new cells to be strong and sound. I want my new body to be

even healthier than my previous body!

Throughout this book, I share with you my recommendations for attaining

and maintaining excellent health the natural way while getting to the cause of

sickness, disease, and degenerative conditions. Over the years, I have offered

these recommendations to my family, to a multitude of patients, to audience

members, and to healthcare professionals, and have found that, when followed,

my guidelines produce great results. Case studies, provided throughout the

book, show how others have dramatically improved their health by making the

simple changes I suggest.

Each chapter of this book focuses on a different topic, from healthy water to

a beneficial home environment. In the following pages, I would like to touch

upon some of the most important principles you’ll find in Health Is Wealth.

FUELING THE BODY

One of my most important recommendations is to obtain good nutrition as a

means of improving your body’s performance. It is a fact that most people put

more thought into their car’s performance than their own performance. They

get regular oil changes, radiator flushes, tire rotations, and air pressure checks.

They choose the most appropriate form of fuel for their car, but they don’t pay

much attention to the fuel they put in their own body, nor do they know about

the body flushes that can help maintain optimum health.

Most people don’t think too much about their health until they lose it, and

then they simply look for a way to “fix” it. This usually involves taking pills, but

while pills may hide the symptoms of pain or dysfunction, they rarely correct

the root cause. I like to compare taking a pill to using a bucket to prevent a leak

in the ceiling from flooding the house. If you repaired the crack in the ceiling,

you wouldn’t have to worry about emptying buckets of water. Similarly, if you

addressed the cause of your health disorder, you wouldn’t have to worry about

taking pills and potentially setting your body up for more serious health problems

down the road.

Many times, symptoms disappear as a result of taking a pill, but that doesn’t

mean the problem is fixed. It simply means that your body has, for the time

being, stopped trying to get your attention through gentle nudging. Sooner or

later, if the cause of the problem is not addressed, your body will shout at you,

Introduction 3

and at that point, your disorder will most likely be much more difficult to correct.

The old adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” is never

more appropriate than when discussing your health. A small investment in a

healthy lifestyle now—including the best possible nutrition—will pay big dividends

as you go through life.

GETTING TO THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM

When I graduated from school, I thought I knew a lot about helping patients.

Boy, was I in for a shock! When I first started practicing, I would give my

patients a form to fill out. To complete the form, patients had to check the box

next to every part of their body that gave them pain, and describe the type and

severity of the pain and how it negatively affected their lives. The form covered

everything, including the nervous (nerves, brain, and spinal cord), circulatory

(arteries, veins, and capillaries), cardiovascular (heart and blood vessels), respiratory

(lungs), muscular (muscles), skeletal (bones), genitourinary (reproductive

and urination), digestive (stomach, intestines, etc.), lymphatic (immune), integu -

mentary (skin), and endocrine (glandular) systems. I even asked about the mental,

emotional, social, and spiritual well-being of the patient. I was shocked the

first time I got a form back and found a check in nearly every box. I was even

more surprised when similar forms were handed in on a constant basis. Patients

would tell me, “Dr. Senne, everything hurts, I’m depressed, and what doesn’t

hurt doesn’t work.”

In those early days of practice, I specialized in joint and muscular problems,

and most notably “bad” backs. I would look at all those checked boxes on the

symptom survey form and feel sorry for those patients. All I could do was say a

silent prayer and hope that in the future, the patients would somehow feel better.

I was a back specialist. How in the world was I going to relieve the myriad

of symptoms that these people were experiencing? How could any doctor help

them?

Whenever a new patient entered my clinic, I spoke to him at length. Often,

the patient had just been told by another physician that his body was not functioning

properly. I would ask, “What did that doctor tell you to do to get well?”

Usually, the doctor had told him that he would have to live with the problem,

which was a chronic condition, or that he would have to use a medication to

control the symptoms indefinitely. Naturally, the patient was often distraught.

As I learned more about the health problems facing my patients, I began to

rethink my practice. I wanted to understand why there were so many sick and

diseased people in our society. Did good health essentially depend on a roll of

the dice? Were a lot of people simply destined to end up in assisted care facili4

Health Is Wealth

ties and nursing homes? Or was something causing so many people to suffer

poor health, and could this “something” be avoided?

I reasoned that there must be basic common denominators in people’s lives

that cause them to become sick, suffer degenerative conditions, and perhaps die

prematurely. Eventually, I did identify the common denominators (more about

that later), and was able to tell my patients how to address the real reasons for

their ill health. Although I wanted to alleviate my patients’ immediate discomfort

and make them more comfortable, I wasn’t interested in treating just the

symptoms. My real goal was to identify and correct the root cause of the problem.

Once this was done, many or all of a patient’s symptoms would go away.

In fact, after treatment, many patients would say that besides being rid of the

ache or pain that had brought them to my office at the start, they now also slept

far better, had greater energy, or were no longer experiencing the stomachaches

that had plagued them for years. The natural treatments I used had affected the

whole person—not just the symptoms.

THE COMMON DENOMINATORS

Above, I mentioned that there are common denominators which cause us to be

sick and suffer degenerative conditions. What are these common denominators?

The first common cause of ill health is all the toxins that come into our body.

Toxins can have an immediate negative effect upon the body, or can accumulate

and cause poor health later on in life. When I say “toxins,” I am referring to many

different substances and even ideas, including harmful organisms such as viruses,

bacteria, and parasites; inorganic minerals and other pollutants that are added

to our food, water, air, clothes, cosmetics, household cleaners, cooking containers,

supplements, and living and working environments; negative information that

enters our mind and soul; and unhealthy relationships that affect our emotional

well-being. These toxins set the body up for sickness, disease, and degeneration.

The second common denominator that causes ill health is the failure to use

the tools needed to detoxify the body and repair and rebuild health. We need to

use fasting and regular elimination to help us detoxify. We need proper nutrition,

clean water, exercise, sunlight, good posture, and adequate rest to help us

repair and rebuild. In addition, we need uplifting and inspiring information,

positive relationships, and a purpose-filled life.

My approach to health is threefold. First, I aim to detoxify the body and

eliminate the impurities that are clogging your arteries, capillaries, veins, bones,

and tissues, as well as your mind and soul. Then, I provide the building blocks

that will allow your body to repair and rebuild itself, making you stronger and

healthier. Finally, I help you avoid the toxins that cause health problems.

Introduction 5

There is so much information and misinformation on health in our society

that it is difficult to determine what is significant and what is simply “noise.”

My goal is to provide an easy step-by-step approach that you can use to attain

good health—perhaps for the first time in your life—and then maintain that

well-being for many years to come.

WHAT’S IN THIS BOOK

Chapters 1 through 8 of this book discuss what might be called the “pillars” of

good physical health. In these chapters, you will learn about the importance of

pure water, clean food, once-a-week fasting, gentle exercise, sunlight, good posture,

adequate rest, and bowel health. Each discussion not only explains the

issue, but also gives you clear guidelines for making healthy changes in your life

so that you an immediately begin to experience better health.

Because good physical health is not possible without mental, emotional,

spiritual, and social well-being, Chapters 9 through 12 address these important

issues. You will learn how to detoxify, repair, and rebuild your mind; how to

build better, more satisfying relationships with friends and family; and lastly,

how to create a relationship with God that will nourish your spirit throughout

your life.

Chapters 13 through 20 each focus on an area that can have an important

impact on your life and health. Topics include storing and preparing your food,

beauty and hygiene, clothing, household cleaners and the home environment,

household electricity and electromagnetic fields, nutritional supplements, integrative

and alternative therapies, and minor injuries and illnesses. In each case,

you will learn how to avoid practices that can be harmful to your well-being,

and how to make choices that can maximize your health.

Chapter 21, “Putting It All Together,” shows you how to pull together all

that you have learned to create a practical daily routine. It’s easier than you

think to incorporate my recommendations into a healthy lifestyle.

Please be aware that if you have a health disorder, this book is not intended

to replace evaluation by a healthcare professional. However, I do suggest that

when you work with a healthcare provider, you make sure to understand the

goals and objectives regarding your treatment. You have a right to know and

understand a doctor’s plan regarding your health, and you have a right to

choose a plan of treatment that makes sense to you.

Within these pages, you will find a commonsense approach that can benefit

people of all ages, including infants, children, adolescents, adults, and seniors.

My hope is that you will use this book as a comprehensive guide to making 

healthier choices in your life, both for yourself and for your family. Enjoy!