Chronic disease begins almost unnoticed with a chemical imbalance in your body. these imbalances are due to either mechanical/structural problems (the body's skeletal frame), chemical (malnutrition, pollutants, such as carbon monoxide, industrial inhalants, or even preservatives found in our foods), or emotional (stress). Disease is cured by correcting these imbalances. Ideally, these imbalances will be detected and corrected in their early stages. This will prevent diseases from developing into a health emergency crisis which can result in much pain, expense, disability, and possibly a fatal ending. While the use of drugs and certain medications are essential for such crisis care (in saving lives), they will never make anybody healthy. Prevention of disease can only be accomplished by early detection and correction of the chemical imbalances. The walking wounded is an apt description coined for those whose health has deteriorated to the point the person has early symptoms indicating something is going wrong, such as being tired all of the time, but have not progressed to the point a specific disease process can be named. Have you ever heard a story like this? "They sent Aunt Jane to the hospital for some tests to find out why she is tired all of the time. They did a lot of testing but still don't know exactly what is wrong. So, they want her to come back in about three months so that more tests can be ran." Of course, what they are doing is waiting for Aunt Jane's condition to more fully develop so it can be identified. Medication can only be aptly applied after an identifiable condition can be named.
There is a better way. Since we are natural, biological organisms, we can only maintain or regain good health through a natural approach - through foods and lifestyles in keeping with our individual biological needs that nature gives each of us. We all must learn to care for our own bodies, since we alone live in it, we alone feed and direct it, and we alone bear the direct consequences of eating habits and lifestyle practices out of line with our natural biological requirements.
Simply stated, the foods that you eat, the water you drink, and the air you breathe make up your chemical intake and your body's fuel supply. Any chemical imbalances we may have can only be a direct response to one or more of these.
Drug and high-tech approaches to disease management are slowly yielding to overwhelming amounts of new research evidence that supports the importance of food and nutrients, nutritional supplementation, exercise, clean air, and emotional security.
submitted by Dr. Datis Kharazzian
The quality of health-care in the United States has dramatically declined in the past two decades. The incorporation of managed care and HMO systems has made money a priority over health. Today’s current model is disease management, not early detection or prevention. Gone are the days when patients were given comprehensive detailed annual examinations and laboratory assessments. There is no better example of the diminished quality and comprehensiveness of annual physical examinations than the blood chemistry panel. A decade ago the average annual lab work ordered in a physical exam included a Chem-24, CBC with differential, TSH, and a lipid panel. However, the health-care model today customarily performs a simple chem-7 and a lipid panel. The addition of a TSH, a CBC, or other tests is no longer routine. In the current HMO model, physicians are evaluated on a regular basis to assess their so-called “effectiveness” as a medical provider in the HMO setting. HMO physicians who order extra tests are considered unqualified providers. Simply put, if Doctor A and Doctor B both see 1,000 patients and Doctor A orders $30,000 worth of tests and Doctor B orders $5,000 worth of tests, it is most likely that when it is time to let go of a doctor, Doctor A will be released.
In the current health-care model, the practice of medicine is established by guidelines formatted by HMO establishments. The goal of these guidelines is to basically provide a service with the least amount of cost to the HMO. In the HMO model, the HMO collects a sum of money from its contracts each year. Their profit is established by keeping as much of the money collected as possible. HMOs limit authorization for testing by defining a term they have called “medical necessity”. Medical necessity is basically translated to which test they can avoid authorizing without increasing liability of malpractice to them. The development of this health-care model has made routine comprehensive blood chemistry evaluations obsolete in the current HMO design.
Many people in the United States have given up on the current health-care model and are searching for alternatives. Alternative medicine has grown aggressively due to the void in the current model. Americans are now spending more money out-of-pocket on alternative medicine every year than on traditional health care. The public is seeking health-care providers that can provide them with comprehensive evaluations and non-invasive interventions. It is this transformed mindset that sets up the stage for functional medicine in which patients seek objective analyses such as lab tests with support that includes herbs, nutrition, and lifestyle
changes.
Healthcare in America Could be Better
According to a report released in September, 2006 by the Commonwealth Fund, a non-profit, non-partisan organization, American healthcare only scored 66 points out of a possible 100 and lagged far behind the rest of the industrialized world. American healthcare received low grades on efficiency, access to care and in outcomes.
The United States spends about 15% of its GDP (gross domestic product) on healthcare, compared to 10% of the GDP spent by most other industrialized nations. Insurance administrative costs in the U.S. were more than three times the rate in countries with integrated payment systems. Nearly one-third of Americans under the age of 65 have trouble paying their medical bills.
Unfortunately, the increased spending does not result in better care. The US rated 15th out of 19 nations with regard to preventable deaths. It is estimated that 115 per 100,000 people die who would have survived if timely and appropriate medical care was administered. France scored highest in this category, with only 75 deaths per 100,000.
The US ranks last in infant mortality, with 7 deaths per 1,000 births. The top three countries have 2.7 deaths per 1,000 births-less than half our number. We are at the bottom of the list in life expectancy. American children miss more school for illness than the children from the other industrialized nations. Fewer than half of American adults receive the recommended screening tests appropriate for their age and sex. Preventable hospital admissions for chronically ill patients (eg; those with asthma or diabetes) were twice as high compared to the nations at the top of the list. The rate of readmission of Medicare patients ranges from 14-22%.
Is there an Alternative to Expensive & Dangerous?
It is hard to go through the day without hearing about the high cost of healthcare in the United States. According to the journal, Lancet (Nov 20; 364(9448):1829-30), we spend over $1.5 trillion on health care; this represents about 15% of our GDP (gross domestic product). In 2007 American healthcare costs topped $2 trillion. If American health care were its own economy, it would be the fourth largest in the world. In other words, we spend more on healthcare than the entire economies of all but three countries in the world.
Healthcare in America is expensive and it is getting hard for many to afford it. General Motors spends more on worker healthcare than it does on steel for a new automobile. About 15% of all Americans cannot afford health insurance and about 23% of the working population is uninsured.
What is worse is that we do not get very much for our money. According to an article published in the Washington Post (May 5, 2004), Americans can expect the correct diagnosis and treatment less than 60% of the time. The United States is 18th in infant mortality and 21st in longevity among the nations of the world. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association ( 2000; 284(4):483-5), 225,000 Americans die each year from iatrogenic (doctor-caused) causes, making it the third most common cause of death in this country.
What many of us don't realize is that healthcare is a business, and treatments have much to do with marketing and profitability. Drug companies are enjoying enormous profits in this environment. Let's just take one drug company, Pfizer, in 2002 shareholders had $9.2 billion in after-tax earnings (a 28% profit). Almost two-thirds of Americans currently use medicines, 49% use prescription drugs, and 30% use nonprescription medications. About 32 million Americans are taking three or more medications daily.
There is some fallout from this reliance on drugs. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (1998; 279:1200-5), administration of drugs in hospitals leads to adverse effects in more than 2.2 million patients and results in about 100,000 deaths per year.
Perhaps we need a new paradigm. Natural health care focuses on improving the body's infrastructure and improving health. This approach is safer and less expensive than manipulating symptoms with drugs; we should try to get to the cause of health problems. Not to say that drugs should never be used, but they should be used cautiously and wisely.
