Why Has Nothing Changed in Healthcare?
Why has nothing changed? Because we need to change.
This principle applies both on a small scale, as far as day to day treatments with patients, encouraging them to take their preventative health into their own hands with daily lifestyle choices. And also a larger scale of our current Healthcare crisis in America.
Not-so-fun facts from the United States Center for Disease Control
Doctors wrote more than 250 million prescriptions for antidepressants during 2010.
Approximately 750,000 people a year are rushed to emergency rooms in the United States because of adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs.
The 11 largest drug companies combined raked in approximately $85,000,000,000 (trillion) in profits in 2012.
The current debate in America about healthcare is invalid. Instead of discussing who is going to pay and how much, what we should be looking at is what true healthcare should be. Instead, we are severely misplacing our time, energy and money by discussing where the money is going to come from and who is going to be covered, and public and private sectors; WHO CARES?! The bottom line is that chronic disease currently costs over the $8 million per minute. We will never be able to afford that! Why should be try to fund a healthcare system that is so severely flawed? The current protocol is to begin treating people once they have already become sick, and to intervene with a drug or surgery that doesn’t get them well. The only way out of this mess, is to decrease the number of people who ARE sick. As I mentioned on our last show together, 80% of our healthcare challenges are due to lifestyle choices- decisions and habits that we make every day.
A paradigm shift in how we view our health needs to occur. To be truly healthy is not simply the absence of disease. Right now, if you are not in any pain or discomfort, and you do not have any symptomatic complaints and you couldn’t possibly think of any reason to go see your doctor. I’m sorry to break it to you, but this does not necessarily mean you are healthy. The rule is: If you’re not growing, you’re dying. You are either getting better or getting worse. There is no staying the same. I’m sorry. You may feel very comfortable in your health right now- like you are coasting along, drifting steadily, or idle somewhere between sickness and health. You are either getting healthier or getting sicker. So there it is. There is the challenge you face everyday. With your daily habits of food and drink choices, exercises and activities, rest and sleep, prayer and meditation, and chiropractic adjustments, you are choosing sickness or you are choosing health. There is no limbo here.
But this is not all doom and gloom. The change is happening right now. I get very excited when I see this paradigm shift in what it is to practice preventative healthcare. I have seen it happen in patients and friends and family. When the person begins to understand that a majority of the food products that people are consuming are not providing proper nutrients to the body. They learn how to navigate this world each day by avoiding processed foods and instead adopt a whole food diet. It becomes so easy for them to avoid junk foods because they develop a keen body awareness and quickly feel how the choices they make affect their mood, symptoms, energy and happiness. They start to reflect on their activity levels and develop healthy exercise habits. They simply choose water to truly quench thirst and avoid soft drinks as if they are poisonous, because they are poisonous. When painful or uncomfortable symptoms do arise in their lives, they seek and try conservative treatment options before moving on to more invasive medications and surgeries. This is such a beautiful thing to witness in others and feel for yourself. This mindset and practice is the heart of what true healthcare is and needs to be. Not only will this practice greatly improve the health and quality of life of many, but at the very same time, drastically reduce healthcare costs and take the strain off of that $8 million/minute cost of chronic disease.
Why has nothing changed? Because we need to change.
Kelly Baltuska, DC
