09/06/2026
What does “Nature” mean in Health? 🌳
My brother, Peter, is a haematologist and also has a PhD in molecular genetics. I was talking to him about holistic health, and he looked at me with the sceptical look only a brother can get away with as he asked, "What does that even mean, Anna?"
I shared a definition: the health of the human body as a whole, rather than thinking about health as individual systems and organs. But even as I said it, I knew my answer was inadequate. Holistic health is much more than that. It encompasses how we live in the world, the food we eat and where we source it from, the time we spend in nature, and the time we spend socialising or making things.
Holistic health starts at our cells and encompasses the environment we live in, with everything connected (my poor brother, imagine the look on his face now). So, Pete, here's an example of the machinery driving our very core.
A Clock in Every Cell ⏰
When you think about circadian rhythm, you tend to picture a single "body clock" in your brain. But your timekeeping goes far deeper than that. Almost every cell you have keeps its own 24-hour rhythm. Each cell does so independently of the others. When cells are removed from the body and kept in a Petri dish, they will keep ticking on that same rhythm for days.
And so, to my haematologist brother: even human red blood cells, which have no nucleus, contain antioxidant proteins called peroxiredoxins. These proteins cycle through a 24-hour rhythm, one that holds steady under constant conditions, even as temperature changes.
Your body's timekeeping is woven into your cells’ chemistry. You are like billions of tiny clocks, kept in step by a master clock in your brain that reads light and dark through your eyes.
Nature First Therapies 🍃
Zestt's tagline is Nature First Therapies. The literal meaning of this is that we use bioactives derived from nature (plants and bacteria) to support your health. The wider meaning encompasses how we live in the world around us, the food we eat and where we source it from, the time we spend in nature, and the time we spend socialising or making things. Sound familiar?
So, Pete…
Of course, what my brother wanted was a proper definition, one with boundaries. So here's mine, Pete, and you can keep the eyebrow where it is for now.
Holistic health isn't a fuzzier version of "the body as a whole." If anything, it's sharper. It says health is a chain with no clean breaks in it. It encompasses a peroxiredoxin ticking away inside a red blood cell that doesn't even have DNA, a master clock in your brain catching the morning light, a body that sleeps and wakes on cue, a person who eats well, gets outside, makes things and sits down to dinner with people they love. Pull on any of those levers, and the mechanics of the whole operation shift.
That's what we mean by Nature First Therapies. We start with bioactives from plants and bacteria, which influence your body at a cellular level. But it doesn't end there. It ends in the life you build around those cells: what's on your plate, how much daylight you are exposed to and who else is sitting and sharing food with you at your table, including your pets!
So no, Pete, "holistic" isn't hand-waving or hocus pocus. It's biology, connected all the way from a single cell to the whole wide world it lives in, and it includes my waving hands!
