Put Your Health in Your Own Hands!

A while ago, I had a little rant on healthcare being a misnomer or oxymoron. Whatever you want to call it, I still content that modern day healthcare is anything but ‘caring for our health’.

At its best, it is treating symptoms. Symptoms that are likely being thrown by an overlooked root cause. In many cases, that treatment achieves some recovery. However, in a lot situations, these symptoms are just treated with a prescription. Easy, peazy, right?

But many prescriptions have side effects themselves. So, that prescription creates another issue in the body and you need another medication to treat the new symptom. If you aren’t managing your own health proactively, it’s almost inevitable that your doctors visits will become more like prescription checks.

Basically, an original ailment may seem under control but it’s now requiring more medication to ease new symptoms. At the base level of this process, you have become an addict. You are addicted to drugs, but it’s ok, because it’s not that stigmatized addiction like the junkie in the streets. You don’t feel like an addict, but your body is ‘jonesing’ for your medication.

Think about it. They aren’t illegal, illicit and insurance may help cover the cost. None of those details matter. It is not ok for your body to be dependent on man-made chemical substances that ‘treat’ an operating system developed by God.

Every person who’s ever been a patient should consider if a doctor is trying to find the root cause of your complaint. When you really think about it . . . are they? Are they trying to get you to a healthy place where you can come off of the medication or does it feel like they are just adjusting your medications?

In my case, the last example was a cholesterol medicine showdown of 2019. My doctor tried to put me on statins. Twice. The most common side effect of statin drugs is weakening of the leg muscles. I know the amount of cheeseburgers and eggs I eat so, it was just difficult to accept a medication was needed when maybe I could just eat fewer cheeseburgers. That was never mentioned by my doctor. At that time, I was a healthy and active 45 year old woman with hypothyroidism. Uncontrolled hypothyroidism can elevate cholesterol also. Knowing that now, I wonder why any doctor wouldn’t have address the thyroid levels and diet before throwing a new pill into the mix. Though, in a profit driven, hospital-owned medical office quick visits and prescriptions are the preferred protocol.

But my doctor didn’t ask questions about my diet. He didn’t make the thyroid and cholesterol connection. He didn’t suggest exercise, he just prescribed! He’s my former doctor now, but too many people believe everything their doctor says. Sorry, I just don’t anymore. Doctors don’t always know best. What fits one person does not fit others.

Think about how much time you get to spend with your doctor, it’s short. They seem to want to chat quickly, write a script and on to the next patient. Am I right? Too many doctors are cogs in the wheel and can’t ‘practice medicine’ for trying to reach quotas of patients to be as profitable as possible.

I ‘met’ a doctor on LinkedIn who consistently criticized his own profession. He realized that doctors hadn’t been making people well, they were just making them functional but never getting to the root cause of illness, thus curing disease. He went on a mission to address and change that.

Then in Fall of 2020, he became pretty outspoken on the way the covid virus was being handled. He has not been seen on LinkedIn in over a year. Those same folks that believe everything a doctor says, also may believe censorship isn’t real. It is very real if you are paying attention.

Through him, I found an entire community of healthcare professionals who questioned the banishment of early treatment drugs. They asked questions, tagging pharma executives, about the billions they had spent in adverse reaction suits, One guy would go all data scientist on the VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) data and question how things were being reported, or not reported.

Y’all, I’d like to tell you about some of those great data scientists and healthcare professionals but many of them have been banned from the platforms that gained them dozens of thousands of followers. It’s sad and harmful. I’d like to listen to the doctor that will trash his own kind, because the first part of his oath was do no harm.

Why? Because they advocate for healthy lifestyles, better nutrition, solid social connections, reduction in stress and exercise. They advocate for the body being able to better battle illness naturally ~ and introduce prescriptions and procedures more sparingly. The world is funded by Big Pharma. If you haven’t noticed that, go back to the Oscars and see who all that was ‘presented by’.

Back to healthy lifestyles, they would save in medical spending and not just save lives but improve them. But healthy people do not generate profit for healthcare corporations.

Who does profit from a population that makes healthier life choices? You do. Your sister does. Your parents do, your children do, uncles, aunts, coworkers and church family. Everyone around you benefits from making better choices. Because you become healthier, which turns into happier.

#Lifestyleasmedicine is a trending hashtag of which I’m not an example. Millions of others are. I have read so many stories about people getting out of the medical system and never being more well. I’m not 100% where I want to be, but I’m 100% closer than where I was.

How long are you going to pay higher costs for lower quality care? Spending a few dollars out of your pocket for vitamins and more nutritious food instead of health insurance and doctors will ultimately save money.

Case in point, I’m looking at a $1,200 imaging bill from last year. Me and a couple ‘specialists’ went on a chase to find out why my hips, back and stomach hurt especially when I sat in my car. No one found any cause. No one bothered to look at my gut health either.

After one visit to a naturopath and a couple hundred dollars in some supplements, there’s a huge improvement in my health. Plus, it’s a freaking amazing bonus that my skin is better and now people regularly compliment my face. That’s new! I’m not gonna lie, it’s also really fun to hear!

It’s time to find a functional doctor, wellness or health coach and start making choices that turn your lifestyle into the medicine that will restore your health.