Does Medicine Damage Our Health? Part One of Two
Our doctors and nurses engage in remarkable works of service in the face of exceptionally difficult circumstances. Patients come to people in the medical profession suffering with sickness and pain. They need to be treated. There are incredible demands on clinics and hospitals to offer a cure, end the sickness and pain. Patients want to be healed as quickly as possible.
Doctors and nurses find themselves limited in their ability to heal their patients. The limits of their medical knowledge, the lack of motivation of patients to change their lifestyle, plus financial restrictions in the public and private sector,curbs their ability to offer the best service to those who suffer.
The whole approach to healing and health needs a total re-evaluation. The pharmaceutical industry is not fit for purpose, nor is the limited training for doctors, who find themselves working as agents for the drug industry.
Poor diet, nutrient deficiencies, lack of full movement of all the limbs of the body and infrequent healthy exercise to oxygenate the cells function as a primary cause for ill-health. A polluted environment also adds to poor health.
A List of 32 Primary Health Issues
You might imagine thousands of different health conditions affecting the quality-of-life of patients. The list may not be that long. Here is a list of 32 of the primary health issues for a person’s visit to the local physician.
In alphabetical order:
ADHD
Alzheimer’s disease
Anorexia
Arthritis
Asthma
Autism
Back pain
Cancer
Chronic fatigue
Cysts
Dementia
Depression
Diabetes
Fibromyalgia
Gallstones
Heart Disease
High blood pressure
Influenza
Insomnia
Migraine headaches
Obesity
Overweight
Osteoarthritis
Osteoporosis
PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Seeing and Hearing
Skin Ailments
Stress
Underactive Thyroids
Varicose Veins
Viruses
The drug industry spends billions of euros/dollars in research of specific drugs to target such ills. The industry often makes claims of a breakthrough in research, which will lead to a cure. You might imagine such incredible advances in medical research now support a society of healthy and happy people. Far from it. Half the population in the Western world swallows a number of tablets daily to try to relieve a health issue from a headache to high blood pressure to chemotherapy.
Improvements in hygiene, cleanliness and nutrition have made the major contribution in the past 100 years or so to the reduction of heart disease born from various diseases and dietary problems, not prescription drugs and heart operations.
Accidents, injuries, carelessness, sports, violence and wars bring people to hospitals in acute need of major or minor treatment. Many of these causes for pain, sometimes immense degrees of it, bear a direct relationship to human behaviour. Absence of ethics, unhealthy habits, addictions, lack of mindfulness and the taking of risks for ego satisfaction can lead to much cuts, broken limbs and organ damage for oneself or others. Much of this human suffering is also avoidable.
Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the USA whether through misdiagnosis, neglect, wrong medication or surgery, including minor operations.
The world’s richest and most powerful nation spends three times as much on healthcare as per person than any other nation. UN figures show that America ranks near bottom of the chart in terms of health of its citizens in Western countries.
The whole approach to medicine worldwide is in a state of crisis. An increase global populations, wars, famines, enviromental catastrophes and lifestyle put immense strain on hospitals worldwide, as well as major financial restraints. The drug industry spends a fortune to discredit all forms of healing and medicine, except the pills the industry prescribes.
There is a growing amount of concern that Western medical treatment causes harm in its attempts to heal patients. Patients can risk their health when they go to see their doctor. Drugs can generate side effects, contribute to addiction to medication, weaken the immune system and traumatise the body. Health bills contribute to stress, anxiety and bankruptcy, especially in the private health sector. Frequent use of drugs can contribute in the long term to loss of energy, vitality and natural happiness.
Diet, Drink and Sickness
A primary cause for sickness arises through what citizens put in their mouth. With its innate sensitivities, the body simply cannot cope with any excess of alcohol, cigarettes, sugar, salt, fat and other products.
Chemicals in food, junk food, preserved food and food that dulls or stimulates the mind affects organs, arteries, energy and many parts of the body. Animals and birds (chickens, turkeys etc) often live in appalling conditions and get fed an unhealthy diet before being sent to the slaughter house. The birds and animals then end up in the factory to be chopped up and finally wrapped in plastic to be placed on supermarket shelves.
Fish spend their lives in polluted seas and rivers permeated with tiny bits of plastic, chemicals, pollution and waste before also ending up on the dinner plate at home or in the restaurant. Heavy consumption of dairy products, such as eggs, cheese, yogurt and butter, gradually start clogging up the cells, arteries, vital organs and the joints.
Excess of consumption of wheat, white bread, biscuits and cakes, crisps (with little potato), chocolate (with little cocoa) slowly over the decades clogs up certain vulnerable cells. The combination of the weekly intake of harmful food and drink contributes immensely to the poor health of society. We live sedentary lives in front of the screen and mobile phone. We breathe in polluted air. Is it any wonder that our clinics and hospitals are cracking under the strain?
Our hospitals would be virtually empty if citizens adopted a healthy diet and lived mindfully, indoors and outdoors, to save themselves from harming themselves and others.
Change your diet and you change your health. Doctors know little about diet. The doctors are not trained to address dietary issues, even for themselves, let alone others. For example, the average life expectancy in the USA is 78 years. The average life expectancy of the family doctor in the USA is around 73 years for white doctors and 68 years for black doctors. This is hardly inspiring. Unhealthy dietary practices generate suffering for the individual and worry and stress for family and loved ones. There are karmic consequences to a poor diet and lifestyle.
Doctors undergo an intense training as agents of pharmaceutical industry. In the course of four to six years of training, medical students in various Western medical universities receive between zero to 70 hours of education of the relationship of diet to health problems. Doctors tell me they receive next to nothing in terms of training in the content of drink and food. They learn very little about the way the food industry exploits customers or how to help patients resolve their health problems. One doctor told me in his five years of intense and arduous medical studies, his professors spent a single afternoon exploring the relationship of nutrition to sickness.
Our doctors receive a medical training fequently irrelevant to the real needs of patients. Doctors can observe easily enough the impact of consistent abuse of alcohol as well as non-alcoholic/sugar/caffeine drinks and the cost of living on fast food, as well as food impregnated with preservatives. Doctors can offer a minute or two of advice to a patient and then hand the patient a leaflet on the value of a useful diet, such as the 5+2 format, namely five vegetables and fruits every week. The patient might take a momentary look at the flyer but will go back home to much the same diet.
Alone, citizens cannot liberate themselves from their unhealthy habits found in the kitchen cabinet and refrigerator or in the supermarket, café or restaurant. The notion of personal choice is a myth. Habitual consumption to unhealthy food and drink is far stronger than personal choice. The privatised one to one with the doctor is part of the problem. A few minutes with a doctor does not address these habits of eating.
Sickness and lifestyle is a community/family issue, not just a personal issue. A doctor who spends a few minutes with a patient will not spark insights to bring about a change for the patient. Inspiration and insights come when a group of people, doctors and patients, meet together regularly to see what needs to be done. The participants share their experiences. They report back the following week to speak about the healthy changes they are making. Doctors and patients develop friendships. The group gives nourishment to each other.
Nutrition, diet and lifestyle change through co-operation with others and skilled facilitation. The visit to the clinic and going back home to the same food stuff contributes to the current crisis in health care. Our doctors and nurses simply cannot cope with the behaviour of irresponsible governments, an irresponsible food industry, alongside the dogmatic and controlling behaviour of the pharmaceutical industry, where maximisation of profit takes priority over health. We need to implement a major change in the approach to sickness and health.
End of Part One of Two