A quick check at History.com confirmed what I remember Mr. Seip telling our 10th grade history class. Even after the Revolutionary War had begun, most colonists did not want total independence from England.

Those who vehemently argued for it, like John Adams, were considered fanatics.

After eight months of fighting, though, something triggered a change. Thomas Paine published “Common Sense,” a pamphlet that asserted independence from England was a “natural right.”

Talk about a bestseller. In just a few weeks in a colony of no more than 500,000 households, more than 150,000 copies were sold.

As a result, a formerly fanatical view transformed into a commonly held one. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence six months later.

I probably recalled Mr. Seip’s words because tomorrow is Independence Day. That by itself though is no reason to write about my recollection.

As an illustration of how a fanatical idea gains acceptance, however, is.

Essentially, that’s what I hope happens every time I encourage you to experiment with a less-than-conventional health strategy that helps me in order to develop a variation that helps you. And I encourage you constantly because such experimentation leads to even more than better physical health.

It makes you more self-reliant - and less reliant on our health system.

So on this Independence Day, take time to consider how you could experiment to gain greater health independence.

Here’s how my dad did it about 30 years ago.

Before he turned 30, my dad injured his back working in a steel mill. After two years of debilitating pain, he had surgery. It was deemed a “success” (remember, this occurred in the middle sixties) though he was told to forever moderate his activity and never lift anything heavier than 40 pounds.

Dad did as told, but that didn’t stop the pain from returning periodically and making him miserable for days.

The pain became particularly bad at the end of my sophomore year in college. I did some research and became convinced that what dad needed was to lift weights to strengthen the musculature surrounding the damaged disks in his back.

I devised a program, provided proper instruction, and dad noticed a difference in a couple of weeks. He started doing more and more of what he was once told not to do - and without discomfort.

He enjoyed lifting enough that he began working other body parts (though he never did much for his lower body). By the time he turned 50, his upper body looked almost as big as it did in the photographs I had of him in his twenties.

More importantly, he was pain-free.

And remained pain-free when he went from semi-retirement in his sixties to working 40 hours a week slinging cases of beer around my brother’s distributorship.

Dad’s 86 now and has had two serious seizures in the past few years that his doctors can’t explain. That’s scared him enough to stop roller skating, but he still does all the yard work around his house - and he owns an acre bordered by a shoulder-high hedge.

It’s time now for the obvious to be stated. There are times when the health stakes are too high and you can’t experiment. You need treatment from a medical professional.

I don’t want to discount that.

Yet at the same time, you need to remember the way C.C. Furnas, a Renaissance man who was an Olympic athlete, an author, a scientist, a university president - and an expert on guided missiles - defined the common cold. “An ailment cured in two weeks with a doctor’s care, and in 14 days without it.”

I took that sort of approach after a fluky bicycling accident in June. While climbing a hill all-out, the left crank arm snapped off.

The pedal flew and so did I. I hit the road elbow first.

Within minutes, it swelled to the size of half a baseball.

As I sat there oozing blood, certain arm movements created discomfort, but I had nearly a full range of motion. When I broke the other elbow in a bicycle race in 2002, I couldn’t raise my arm high enough to pledge to the flag.

So I took that and the instant swelling as good signs and went home to ice and manipulate the elbow instead of going to an urgent care facility. I decided there was no break and that the discomfort came from the swelling impinging the muscles and nerves.

Was my diagnosis right?

Maybe it’s to early to tell, but I can tell you this.

In the eight days since the accident, I haven’t missed a cycling workout - though they have been altered significantly. As long as I stay inside and ride hands-free occasionally to give the elbow a break, I can ride the bike for as long and as hard as I like.

I’ve also done all sorts upper-body exercises (but very carefully and with little or no weight) and a really tough leg lifting workout using dumbbells rather than a barbell.