subject: Health Care In America -- The Treatment Of Illness Without Regard For Prevention -- The Battle Is All But Lost [print this page] Health Care In America -- The Treatment Of Illness Without Regard For Prevention -- The Battle Is All But Lost
Most doctors in America spend the wholeof their practicestreating symptoms. The emphasis is continually on treating the disease after it occurs. Nearly every penny of every dollar spent on health care in America goes towards treating illness, and almost nothing goes towards preventing the illness in the first place. In this writer's view, this is nothing short of insanity.
Health care costs are rising out of control but Americans are not getting healthier. Nearly half of all adult Americans have some type of chronic illness. When 1.5 trillion out of 2 trillion dollarsspent on health care in a single year goes to treat these chronic conditions we are finding ourselves in a battle that we just can't win and really the battle is all but lost. Imagine spending a good chunk of that money for instance on conditions caused by obesity? With health care costs rising to unprecedented levels, how can we afford to spend huge amounts of dollars onvery preventable illnessessuch as obesity? Almost every chronic illness can be reversed through diet and lifestyle changes and yet this obvious fact has seemingly gone unnoticed by the medical community at large.
Even the term "health care" is misleading. The majority of the American medical community have nothing to do with health care or disease prevention. Doctors in America do notpractice health care or the prevention of illness for their patients. They only react to symptoms and treat the disease.
No doctor should ever write a prescription for drugs except as a last resort. The first prescription every doctor should write should be about lifestyle and dietary changes. Inflammation is one of the main culprits in disease, and increasing the amount of fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains will not only reduce inflammation but also will increase essential fiber intake as well as vitamins and minerals. These are natural cures and if a doctor does not recognize the benefits of dietary and lifestyle changes then you should run, not walk out of his office and find a doctor who agrees with the Father of Western Medicine, Hippocrates, who said, "Let food be thy medicine, and medicine thy food."
Consider for a moment heart disease which is the leading cause of premature deaths and higher health care costs in America. Lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking, a healthy plant based diet, moderation in alcohol use, and regular exercise would eliminate nearly 9 out of 10 cases of heart disease. Bypass surgery is extremely expensive, terribly invasive, and rarely if ever provides any lasting cure and yet multiplied billions are spent every year by Americans who for a minuscule fraction of the cost could incorporate dietary and lifestyle changes and avoid this terrible surgery altogether. And lest you think a bypass is a scientific approach while lifestyle changes are mere quackery, you should research these things and look at the science behind true health care and the case studies and testimonies of hundreds of thousands of people who have slowed or reversed chronic life threatening diseases through positive changesregarding their diets and lifestyle. The numbers ofpatients thoroughly healed from chronic illness by simple life changes are now too great to deny that we have been wrong in the way we approach health care in America.
When you sit down and crunch the numbers on the ridiculous percentage of American income that goes for health care which cannot actually provide any true healing whatsoever, it is quite eye opening and downright scary. It is easy to see how the path that we have been going down will sooner than later bring this country to the brink of financial disaster. At this writing we have almost gone too far to safely return. If individual Americans don't take charge of their own health through diet and lifestyle changes it is only a matter of a short time before it will be too late ifwe have not reached that point already.
Remember, the best way tobe sure you will never give your life savings for a bypass surgery or chemotherapy is to never need these interventions in the first place. This should be obvious --shouldn't it?
