Dr. Mercola May 31 2008 11,222 views
It is easy to feel overly virtuous when you are young, fit, healthy and not addicted to bad food and lifestyle choices but consider this: Old age, sickness and death are inevitable, in differing degrees, for every single person on the planet, including yourself. Even if you make all the right choices there will come a time when something will give out on you. The fact is we all will need some medical care at some point in our lives and hopefully we will be savvy (and at this point lucky) enough to have access to quality, intelligent care. Yes, we need to be proactive in our health, but we also really need to change our medical system.
Tom T,
Please take your nutty, kooky conspiracy theories and post them on moveon.org. Please stay on topic...the high cost of health care!
Personal responsibility is the ONLY way for change to happen in our health care system. The first and most important step toward health is to ask "WHY?" do people know that sodas are bad for them and still keep drinking them? Why do people, knowingly, do harmful things to their body? What is the underlying concept that creates emotions and actions for self care versus self neglect/abuse? The fundamental idea is our view of the universe and life. If we believe in an ordered universe and intelligent design, if we believe that life expresses from the INSIDE OUT with infinite wisdom, then we will also believe that, if we live within the laws of nature, we have the ability to build health.
On the other hand, if we believe in a random universe and that life is incapable of healing itself, we will look for short cuts and tricks; and we will fight nature. We will feel that our health is determined by outside forces and that there is no internal power for health. We will not be emotionally motivated to invest in inner health --- because inner health is not a part of our view of the universe. The knowledge that sodas and exhaustion, etc are bad for us are inconsistent pieces of information relative to our view of a random universe.
As we seek health education, this first and most critical step, examining our core beliefs, is usually overlooked. However, it is our core beliefs that direct our decisions and create our emotional motivation.
I do place some blame with the pharmaceutical companies. They hire the brightest minds to develop massive advertising campaigns telling people that reality doesn't deliver health, and drugs deliver relief. Many people accept that health is unlikely and, at best, random. And, they wait til symptoms appear, and then seek relief rather than solutions. Our view of the universe is often a self-fulfilling prophecy. I prefer to believe in an ordered universe where I am empowered to make a difference in my life.
Hi! I'm new to this forum and wanted to comment on health care in Canada. My husband comes from the province of New Brunswick, from near the capital, Fredericton. Most of his family is still there. Gerry and I have been married for 32 years, and for all those 32 years I have been appalled at the quality of health care in that area. Many years ago, on one of our visits, we saw that my sister-in-law 's legs were very swollen. We insisted she see the doctor. Well, the doctor wanted blood tests, and my sister-in-law had to go to the hospital for that; she couldn't get an appointment in under two weeks. She has been tryiing to find the source of pain in her side for more than 2 years. She has to wait for months to get X-rays, more months for a CT scan, and even more for an MRI. And still no diagnosis. Doctors are leaving for more lucrative practices in the United States. Half the rooms in the hospital in Fredericton are closed, and the hospital is being run primarily by nurses. Many of the doctors who remain are not taking new patients, so people wait for 12 hours or more in the emergency room. I also saw a video about a man in -- I think -- Ontario who was told he had to wait something like four months for an MRI of his brain. He made his way to the United States to get an MRI right away. Good thing, too. Had he waited four months, he would have been dead of a brain tumor. Now, I realize that there are areas in this country that experience some of these problems, and I recognize that our medical system needs to be overhauled. However, I am in no way in favor of universal health care, certainly not government-run universal health care. Perhaps we should go back to the really olden days, when people paid doctors what they could afford -- maybe even chickens and apples.
I don't care for our systems either, but until each person takes full responsibility for their own health how can it change? We all know the average American does not exercise, eat whole foods, sleep enough, get sun exposure, or reduce stress in their lifes. The key is responsibility, education and prevention.
www.sharethecause.com/reducetoxinsnow
Good point qualitygeek. I've been saying for years that the term "healthcare" is misleading. It's a sales gimmick for the illinformed. What it should be called instead is sickcare, diseasecare, scarecare, or scamcare. Take your pick. Let the buyer beware........