Dr. Mercola January 03 2009 24,405 views
How can the U.S. significantly reduce health-care costs, and yet plan on increased employment in the health-care industry? According to the article linked below, this is the moral crux for American medicine. If Americans become healthier, there will be fewer jobs. Maybe this is why modern medicine drags its feet when it comes to preventive medicine.
The government is complicit in spawning the diabetes/obesity epidemic by subsidizing the production of non-nutrient-dense foods and high-fructose corn syrup. Statin anti-cholesterol drugs are approved by the FDA even though they don’t reduce mortality rates. Modern medicine is an industry that wants more, not less, disease to treat. Doctors aren’t interested in disease prevention -- conventional medicine is quick to dismiss any truly preventive therapies as unproven and requiring more study.
Still, an estimated 38 percent of U.S. adults, along with 12 percent of children, use some type of complementary and alternative medicine, according to a new U.S. government survey.
Complementary and alternative medicine refers to a wide-ranging collection of medical and health care systems, practices and products that aren't generally considered conventional medicine. They include herbal supplements, meditation, chiropractic treatment and acupuncture.
For the survey, more than 23,300 adults were interviewed about their use of complementary and alternative medicine. More than 9,400 were also asked about their children's use of complementary and alternative medicine.
The survey found that the use of techniques such as deep breathing, meditation, massage therapy, and yoga increased significantly. The most common supplements used by adults are omega 3 fats, glucosamine, echinacea, flaxseed, and ginseng.
Other findings from the survey showed that more women than men use complementary and alternative medicine (42.8 percent versus 33.5 percent). Older, more educated and wealthier adults also used complementary and alternative medicine in greater numbers.
It’s no wonder that 38 percent of American adults have opted for alternative medicine. Where else can the public turn? Many patients are belittled when they tell their doctors they are taking dietary supplements instead of prescription drugs.
Americans are increasingly distrustful of prescription medicines. According to a 2005 poll, 35 percent of Americans who were prescribed drugs didn’t take them because they wanted to save money, and another 28 percent didn’t take them because of "frightening side effects.
It is becoming increasingly clear that conventional medicine is working against the public welfare.
Across the country, trust in institutions that were established to guard our health has fallen to an all-time low. According to an article in 2004 in the Harvard Public Health Review, this country is having a “crisis of confidence.”
Patients don’t trust insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, or their physicians. Physicians, in turn, are skeptical of clinic and hospital administrators. I am certain that the situation has not improved in the past four years and has probably further deteriorated.
The Matter of Trust
Why does trust matter?
“Trust is an important lubricant of the social system,” Kenneth Arrow writes in the Harvard article. “Without it, the gears of the nation’s health system will continue grinding down.”
But here is an interesting thought; maybe this system should grind down as it has been dysfunctional for so many years.
One of the “side effects” of a dissatisfied populous is that people take matters into their own hands. This has had a beneficial effect in the United States as people have begun to investigate other ways to achieve health—alternative and complementary medicine. Not only have they dipped their toes into the water, they have jumped in.
As the featured article states, Americans are embracing alternative medicine for its focus on health versus illness, prevention versus cure. People are hungry for a holistic alternative in which they feel treated like people, rather than diseases.
Natural medicine not only provides a less expensive and safer alternative to conventional medicine, but an empowering one, since many of the health techniques are done at home, by you, the patient. It often involves simple lifestyle changes, nutrition, exercise, etc., and emphasizes something I have long advocated--taking charge of your own health.
Repairing Damaged Relationships, or Moving On
Does this new paradigm really mean that modern medicine has to be at war with the public? Do you have to sacrifice your relationship with your physician in order to embrace new forms of health care?
I say no.
In fact, there is nothing to be gained by being at war with anyone. The relationship is the cornerstone of the medical system--nobody can be helped if physicians and patients aren’t getting along.
But increasingly, research and anecdotal reports suggest that many patients don’t trust their physicians.
About one in four patients thinks his physician sometimes exposes him to unnecessary risk, according to a study published this year in the journal Medicine (cited in an article in the New York Times). And two recent studies show that patients’ trust in their doctors strongly influences their medication compliance.
Many studies have documented that the quality of the interaction between physician and patient can strongly influence patient outcomes. As long ago as 400 BC, Hippocrates wrote about how “the patient, though conscious that his condition is perilous, may recover his health simply through his contentment with the goodness of his physician.”
Dr. Newman, author of the book Hippocrates’ Shadow: Secrets from the House of Medicine, said studies of the placebo effect suggest Hippocrates was right when he claimed that faith in physicians can help healing. “It adds misery and suffering to any condition to not have a source of care that you trust,” Dr. Newman writes.
The Placebo Effect is Real and Can Be Used for Good
Many physicians have enormous potential to positively influence outcomes and behavior just by the way they interact.
In 2001, Blasi Z et al. did a systematic review of 25 clinical trials (Lancet 2001 Mar 10;357(9258):757-62) to determine if doctor-patient relationships had any measurable therapeutic effect. They concluded that physicians who were “warm, friendly and reassuring” were more effective than those who were more formal and less nurturing in their approach.
Unfortunately, physicians today are working in settings where they are usually expected to funnel patients through every 7-12 minutes, which churns out a tall stack of invoices by the end of the day but leaves no time for relationship building.
As the public demand for complementary and alternative medicine grows, a new and different type of provider will emerge.
This is already happening!
If you find that you have philosophic differences with your health care provider that seem irreconcilable, perhaps it’s time to make a change.
There will always be some physicians who are behind the times, some who are on the cutting edge, some who want to learn from their mistakes, and some who don’t. It is your job as a proactive individual to evaluate what is moving you toward better health, and what isn’t—and that includes your relationship with your doctor.
We already know what to do to be and stay healthy. We must work to create balance in our lives by eating more vegetables, exercising more, and drinking pure water. Now, it's time to do it. Ultimately, this will create more jobs and fuel a booming economy. The current health care system is making us sick, by covering our symptoms with drugs that all have side effects. Then, when we're sick enough, we have our organs ripped out. When we finally succumb to cancer, we get irradiated, attempting to burn the dis- ease out. This barbarism will stop when we take charge of our lives utilizing the most natural means first, drugs second and surgery last.
dont say we ,say them, if they r not wise enough to forseen this medical scam they dont deserve to be healthy period; besides who needs billions of ship;I agree with gorgia thumbstones 500 milkions of smart people not 6 billions of ships
So well said, Dr. Visentin.
sobber, I agree with you regarding the use of the expression "them"... however, I feel you may be going too far when you say "they dont deserve to be healthy".
When someone is on a poor diet, drinking fluoridated water, is on medication or experiencing any other impariment of their innate impulse to be well... they simply aren't in a good position to think straight. Simply put, their hardware has been/is being corrupted.
Add to this possibility the fact that the (already compromised) individual has been convinced by society that allopathy is not just the best way forward for them but is in fact THE ONLY WAY forward, then of course they are going to make health choices we know will only disguise, delay, exacerbate or cause further problems. In other words (staying with the computer analogy) the operating software is limiting their processing abilities.
So, for my own part, I don't go along with the notion that they deserve to be deprived of health because of their choices. Because, until they become aware of (and free themselves from) the personal and societal constraints that impinge on them, they are doomed to keep repeating mistakes. Mistakes from which they may one day die. Or one day learn. There is always hope...
... because...
,., unlike a damaged computer running low-grade software which is never likely to figure out how to fix itself or realise that it's operating software is holding it back...
... the human being is capable of insight, realisation... and change.
No matter how dumb they appear all it takes is a moment. An insight, a thought and BAM! their existing health-paradigm changes. They dump their old ways and move forward into a new world, experiencing freedom they never thought possible.
So perhaps the issue is not so much that they are sheeple and therefore undeserving, but rather it is we who need to improve our ability to facilitate their paradigm breakthroughs?
Dr. Visentin:
Most of the drugs of today do not even deserve to be second.
The doctor of chiropractic (DC) is provided a very similar education (approx. 4600 hrs.) to that of the MD (approx. 4300 hrs.). However, the DC recieves the extra 300 hours in: microbiology, orthopedics, neurology, differential diagnosis, hard and soft tissue pathology, and nutrition.
The DC makes an efficient and ultimately safe primary health care provider to balance your nervous system while helping you sort through health issues. Maintain a crisis care relationship with medical providers.
DC's are leaving the health insurance paradigm, building affordable out of pocket expense care systems. I see 300 people a week (and growing!) for both musculo-skeletal and primary health care issues.
While working and hosting healthcare discussion groups, I confer everything I learned in school and thereafter (thanks to Dr. Mercola)...What the body "Really" needs to survive.
That's all wonderful that you can post that comment, but what do I, a 63 year old grandmother, do when I try to get my doctor on my side about no drugs and he sends me a certified letter giving me 30 days to find another doctor. I had two doctors do that to me and this third one is no better except that he has not yet sent that letter. I haven't seen him in a year because of what happened last November/December when he wanted me to stay in the hospital for overnight observation when the first blood test proved nothing was going on with my heart to cause my shoulder pain. I even told him I tossed a very heavy limb into my burn pile with my left arm because I had my two chihuahuas on a leash with my right arm. :) Dumb. But because I had a mild heart attack back in 2001, everybody went on cardio alert and started injecting me with stuff and presenting me with a low dose aspirin. I was afraid TriCare Prime (husband is retired military) would not pay if I was a difficult patient so I submitted. Those of us who have never been to medical school don't have a leg to stand on even though we read stuff like what Dr. Mercola provides on his site and others who are genuinely concerned about the medical corruption that is today affecting millions of people daily, hourly, by the minute, even. I have tried to share my concerns with these people but they just dismiss me as a misguided elder uneducated person. Where is all this great stuff happening with alternative medicine awakening and doctor/patient trust? It ain't happening where I live. And even if it were, my insurance would not pay for it. :) For many people today, life is a *** and then we die. I just want a doctor to do the "correct" tests to show me where I am and allow that he/she is the manager and I am the CEO of what does or does not happen with my body. I know. I'm fat. I have T2Diabetes. I have severe plaque psoriasis. Dr. R said that unless I could "give him" 100 pounds I gotta do the drugs. Hugs from Florida
As long as the medical establishment is a monopoly and a police state where workers cannot tell the truth or they will lose there beloved license (the most precious thing they have), the patient will always come in last. The new hippocratic oath is don't blow the whistle on your fellow doctors, no matter how incompetent, and never use a treatment that isn't approved by the monopoly.
They are in the sicness business, and they need chronically ill people to survive, and if they can't find enough they'll generate them by giving them killer drugs like statins and blood pressure medicine.
The first thing to do is get rid of health (sickness insurance) so there is money for alternative care.
Then allow MD'S to treat people with supplements not poisons (drugs).
After that, demand science behind drugs, and free the best medicine in the world, marijuana.
As long as there is a monopoly, there is no cure, you are going to have to learn to be your own physician or be slowly killed by them. (Check out "Death by Medicine"
In response to Rett: I do feel for you. There are many "wars" being fought in this world, health being only one. Yes there are "powers" that do not want us to be "empowered". Because of your age and disease status, you have a hard road ahead, but take courage that you can succeed as far as your health is concerned. You must be very well informed to win.
In order to find a medical doctor to as you say, be a manager to your ceo you will have to search thru many candidates. Mds are used to being god. So there will only be a small % (Maybe less than 10%) who will work with you this way.
You should find a new doctor who does not use drugs. Become an expert researcher, ask for referrals where ever you can. Good doctors who don't use drugs are also few and far between but don't give up.
You may have to use drugs till you make enough progress to tip the balance in your favor by using a good doctor and natural medicine. Only God knows for sure, but I don't believe natural medicine will win the war in the end. The only victories will come for individuals who are fortunate enough to find it and become empowered by it. The world at large will be deceived and suffer for it. Their plans referred to as "Codex" are continuously being pushed on a largely stupid and unaware public. People should not give up, but should be aware of the possible eventuality of it.
Lastly, there are more important things than ones physical health, being ones spiritual health. "Keep on then, seeking first the kingdom..." Mat. 6-33.
God bless.
sobber - ships? I don't get it.
Rett:
A] If you can travel to Connecticut, get a referral to Dr. Stephen T. Sinatra, Manchester, CT. (Yes, I know it's a LO-O-O-O-O-ONG way from Florida, but he will be the end of the kind of nonsense you have had to endure.) He will straighten you out. Maybe even the psoriasis(?).
B] If you can't make that happen, and you end up on your own medically, do two things: 1) Go the South Beach program, it really does work, but it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle alteration, face it and deal with it; and 2) Add in the following total supplements (as Dr. S. would prescribe): Multivitamin/mineral Foundation Program with 1 gram of fish oil, plus 180-360mg CoQ10, 1-2g L-Carnitine, 5g D-Ribose, 800mg Magnesium, 100-400mg alpha lipoic acid, 100-200mg Gymnema sylvestre, and 1mg vandal sulphate. These are daily amounts that should be divided into three doses taken with meals. Since you already had a heart attack in the past, I also would recommend 500mg of Taurine with each meal; and if you have any trouble with digestion, also add Betaine - HCl per label directions (other enzyme combos optional too); and either follow Dr. M's "nutrition-type" diet or Dr. Peter D'Adamo's Blood Type diet (basically the same thing, with extensive investigational microbiological/biochemical research science behind Dr. D.'s work), South Beach rules applying in either case.
And figure out ways to include freshly ground Cinnamon in your new dietary practice until you reach your target weight and the T2D is resolved. Typical South Beach results for those who faithfully follow the rules are 30# in 30 days the first month, maybe just a little slower thereafter. No kidding!
Don't dither, just do either A] or B] plus Cinnamon, and good luck!
Yes, the big problem is the health care system. People feel that they need to get value for all the money they pay. Cut your losses, leave the system, take responsibility for your oun health. Yea!
I agree wholeheartedly. The disease care system is for throwing your money down the drain. It's unfortunate about the 90% of the population who don't know and/or don't care about whats going on. They unwittingly run interference for big business and empower them to continue doing what they do; namely, exploit all of us.
If you can take ownership of your health, drop insurance altogether or cut down to catastrophic coverage and save buckets of money.
If you don't take ownership of your health, you are forced to play by their rules, their treatments.
Well, son-of-a-gun! I didn't know such insurance was available, you never hear it offered! ...Or talked about, except right here right now!
Or how about State employee healthcare plans, where a $300,000 open-heart surgery results in $0 out-of-pocket expense. Guess who pays for that?
This whole HC mess began right after WWII ended, when employers were devising all kinds of employee sign-on bonuses & perks -- AND, almost everyone was fairly healthy. Insurance paying 80% of almost-never OVs was quite reasonable, and HD & cancer were still the rare afflictions of the elderly. But things changed, we're now the sickest nation on earth, with entire hospitals devoted to bald children, and the rates have only skyrocketed to cover the skyrocketing cost of hundreds of millions of people (now also including tens of thousands of illegal immigrants) commuting to HC "providers" for every little sniffle, scrape, sore or stiffness -- hey, it's only a small copay...! -- in addition to epidemics of once-elderly-only, very-expensive-to-treat diseases rampant among the general population, to the point where defibrillators are required in schools to shock the kids back to life! What's wrong with this picture?
(Partial answer only: SUPER SIZE ME. Watch the movie.)
As I am still trying to achieve wellness, I have found that my allopathic doc is very intolerant of alternatives
She about had a coronary when I gave her a card of my herbal doc...figure that?
I had thought she would welcome my openess to show I was involved in trying to really get healthy, trying alternatives to the chemical cocktails THAT ALL made me sicker.Since that, about a year ago; I have gone to my herb doc 5 times vs allopath 2 times( both disappointments..she pushed flu shots and mammogram and hormones) I have up until 2 years ago tried every anti-depressant and every birth control pill, none of them helped, only made me WORSE, much much worse.
I still do not have all the answers to what ails me, but I can attest that what herbal doc tried so far has not had any ill effects, made minor improvements even.
I am stronlgy considering dropping my exspensive health inurance, it eats 20% of my disability retirement, and just get what Dandy recommends.
I have a small request for people who post info, give us a link in that post.So it is easier to find when we want to research something.
Thank you & Happy Healthy New Year
themikeb,
If you are a woman, and I'm guessing from your mention of mammograms that you are, you might want to check out this site:
www.womentowomen.com/default.aspx
I have gotten much helpful info from them and perhaps you can, as well.
... organic and pastured traditional foods ... Up to this point I agreed with you, however pasteurization is counter to health! Bacteria are our "friends and helpers"- without them we would be unable to live!!! Jon Barron has a book out called 'Lessons From The Miracle Doctors' and he illustrates the significance of the BASELINE OF HEALTH. I take this and elaborate on it here: For illustration purposes take a sheet of paper and crease it in the center. When you look at it, imagine the 'top half' representing your Field of Health and the 'bottom half' representing your Field of Illness. Start to draw a line from left to right where you think you are at this point in time with your health.Your objective in your life should be to stay as far to the top of your Field of Health as possible, because ANY decline for whatever reason will keep you healthy longer. Once your 'healthline' dips below the crease, you are ill.
Now to object of the exercise is, to become healthy once again. If your healthline continues to decline, however, you will "fall off" the bottom edge of the paper and you die! Therefore you are responsible for the degree of your health and should endeavour to be in the upper part of health, called WELLNESS.
My doctor was very clear, if the FDA doesn't have their finger in it, he is not interested in it. He would not even discuss any simple healthy solutions to any problem, instead informing me there was a perscription waiting for me down stairs in the pharmacy.
When I complained I was told by the HMO's chief doc that I was getting proper medical care.
So I fired them. The doc told me I could not fire him, watch me I said.
I had been with this HMO since 1966. I wish I had done this earlier, but earlier I did not know what I know now.
There are a couple of reasons, Ameliorate, why doctors behave the way they do when it comes to healthy alternative medicine. He's dead now, but the quack Dr. Victor Herbert used to make his living going to medical schools across the country warning medical students about the 'evils' of natural medicine. He was a piece of work! But he was very effective in poisoning the minds of the prospective doctors.
Someone has probably replaced him, doing much the same thing.
You mentioned that doctors want their patients "stay in compliance." Less appreciated is how much doctors have to "stay in compliance." If they don't, they can get in real hot water.
The solution is the Access To medical Treatment Act. I learned about it when I was interviewing US Congressman Peter DeFazio in his office. Her's some more info on it:
stage4cancercure.blogspot.com/.../we-aint-going-to-solve-health-care.html
Has anyone even noticed yet that big pharma is phasing out 'ask your doctor' in favor of 'ask your prescriber'? That alone speaks volumes to me about the conventional health care system.
KelleyEidem:
And you can be sure "the quack Dr. Victor Herbert" was well-paid by Big Pharma, with an AMA bonus check!
That poisoning of the minds worked well on street-level PCPs, whose education typically ends upon graduation; but doesn't necessarily last very long when the specialists' education kicks into high gear AFTER graduation and they begin to learn what REALLY works. Like the Four Pillars of energy metabolism therapy: CoQ10, L-carnitine, D-ribose and magnesium; built upon a solid foundation of multivitamin & mineral supplementation plus fish oil. Great for everything from CFS to CHF, Fibro to Syndrome X, to just plain preventive supplementation. And prevention is hands-down the very best therapy of all!
Anyway, what's the current status of AMTA?
Hello All...I had an adult foster care home for 6 years. One of my sweetest ladies came out of nursing home. She was drugged to the hilt. Seven medications...each one reducing the effects of the one previously given. She was confused...depressed...angry...and to put it mildly difficult to take care of. She was a level 4 care. Which means she had almost total assist care issues. Well we brought her home and went on a "med. holiday." We started eliminating one medication at a time over a month period. Including blood pressure meds. Turns out she didn't need any of them!!! We made sure she was in a sunny window everyday..and made sure she got a hug and a kiss every day on her forehead. We often told her how much we appreciated her in our home. She blossomed like a flower. Turned out we were the lucky ones to have known her. We talk about trust and faith in our medical community...here's what I have to say about that....Faith is synonymous with truth...To use the word faith in the same sentence with the medical physicians and the big pharm is just misguided. Faith is reserved to a higher power than any Doctor/Pharm on this earth, regardless of their power or self interest. I think that people are waking up to the fact that the bus has run off the road. Continuing a relationship with a Doctor who gets all his information from a drug rep. month to month is slow death. Don't get me wrong...Doctors have their place. I have suffered two crushed legs from a car wreck and a daughter having a stroke. Neither could have survived with out the medical Doctors doing their jobs and doing them well. But their is a limit to how much you can "trust" your medical Doctor to do what's best for you...after that we have to get involved with our own best care. Stop trying to fix things with trust.. until trust is earned. There is no reason to feel that we can effect this industry with our trust or "faith". Just stop the wishful thinking & guilt trip on us.
Easy options:
Thank you. My mother was in the same boat, but never recoved from the BIG PHARMA dictatorship that is modern medicine. She was tucked away in a Nursing Home, that was ill equipped, understaffed, and suffered a complete lack of understand about the basics of health.
She received no fresh air, no sunshine, too little in the way of clean water, and her diet was made up of the most horrible processed foods one could lay eyes on. There was not enough money as they say for staff, so that she could get some exercise, at the very least once a week. Thus she just wasted away.
Knowledge is power, and again our health and well being is too important to be left to someone else. This should be a lesson for us all. If those who have had heart attacks, and strokes, and have survived, it not too late to start with the basics of good health, and not as prescribed by some "educated fool," because today's education stands squarely against, going it alone, or gathering information to help yourself.
As the Reverend says, doctors have been brainwashed. I work with doctors, when I show them peer reviewed evidence that something works, they recommend it. They are glad to hear it. We in the traditional medicine field have been made to feel that we cannot trust alternatives so we are afraid of them. Doctors are also afraid of being sued. Alternative doctors are put out of business and persecuted.
curious7:
That was not just your mother, that was, is, and will be the fate of anyone placed in -- no, let's speak truth, shall we? -- sentenced to Death-By-Nursing-Home. Oh, surely there must be some real nice ones for the Very Rich & Famous, but for the rest of us, it's systematic, deliberate dehydration so the staff doesn't have to change as many diapers so often; likewise for systematic pseudo-accidental starvation, plus chronic self-starvation due to serving repulsive pseudo-food; the list goes on and on. It's just Dr. Kevorkian on the Daily Installment Plan. Supposedly it's about money. The only difference between the expensive ones and the Medicaid hovels is in the expensive ones they actually clean the floors periodically and sometimes even spray air freshener. The American nursing home is nothing more or less than Death Row for old folks.
Another nursing home tactic is to keep all the inmates heavily medicated so the staff doesn't have to deal with any that still have any remnant of a personality left. easy options barely alluded to that: Five unnecessary meds.
BTW, e o: There have been a number of cases reported by PCPs where blood pressure meds were no longer needed after some period of many months. This strange phenomenon absolutely baffles them. Duh. Hypertension is often a result of electrolyte imbalance; once that balance is restored so is normal BP, which can happen with prolonged diuretic use -- the body gets the chance to sort itself out chemically. Maybe not always, maybe not often, but sometimes.
Amen! I almost died 2 years ago after putting my "trust" in doctors.
Thank you for the work you and others like you do for people, easy options.
The story of the lady who recovered in your home (using love and a little common sense) really brought tears to my eyes! Wonderful story. What this world needs is more "humans" and fewer "workers"