The average life expectancy in the United States is 77.85 years, which ranks forty-sixth highest in the world. Among the countries with higher life expectancies are Guam and Puerto Rico, both of which are under U.S. control, but don’t have nearly the same “quality” of health care that is provided in U.S. states.
Per capita, more centenarians (people 100 or over) live in Dominica, a small third-world Caribbean island, than anywhere else. Most of them live active, rural lifestyles and have little or no access to Western medicine or health care.
How is it that the United States, which spends more money on health care than any other country, isn’t able to compete with third world countries and territories that don’t have nearly the same access to modern conveniences, modern medicines, or modern treatments?
Perhaps my own life experience can help us to better understand what’s going on here.
****
When I was sixteen, I was eating lunch in a classroom when I suffered an attack of vertigo followed by complete blindness. A few minutes later, I regained my vision… but something still felt off.
The doctors couldn’t agree on a diagnosis. One called it a seizure, another said it was a migraine, and still another said it was neither, but that he didn’t know what it was. Without any clear diagnosis, we took the “wait and see” approach… and did nothing.
A few months later, I suffered another attack… this time the vertigo more severe, the blindness lasting longer. And over the next three years, the attacks came in greater and greater frequency… and were of longer and longer duration.
During that time, I underwent hundreds of tests, had my lifestyle monitored and micromanaged, and was diagnosed and re-diagnosed with numerous maladies: Migraines, diabetes, anemia, hypoglycemia, optical migraines, unidentified brain damage…
Yet when the doctors did further tests, or tried to treat me according to their diagnoses, they found that things didn’t add up. The medication didn’t work… or the tests didn’t confirm what they suspected.
And then, when I was nineteen, while backpacking in Italy with two college buddies, I fell down and didn’t get up. Instead, I shook violently, turned blue, lost consciousness, and came to in an Italian ambulance.
Afraid of the poor quality of Italian health care, I snuck off a gurney when doctor’s had their backs turned, and walked out of the hospital.
A week after I returned to the states, it happened again. But this time, doctors refused to let me leave the hospital until they had settled on a diagnosis.
“Epilepsy,” a group of neurosurgeons eventually concluded. “It’s rare to have it flare up at such a late age… and it’s interesting that your brain scans look normal… but it’s definitely epilepsy.”
Five years of hell followed. I was put on various medications that slowed the firing of the neurotransmitters that, they believed, were causing my “epilepsy”. Of course, the medication didn’t just affect my “seizures”, it affected my whole life.
I was forced to stop wrestling (despite the health problems, I’d been a national-level wrestler), and I was forced to leave college.
Ultimately, as I adjusted somewhat to a third medication… I returned to college and finished my wrestling career. But those years weren’t without many hospital trips, perpetual headaches and memory-loss, and constant weariness.
Then, about a year ago, I decided to start Avanoo. When I made that decision, I realized I’d no longer be able to afford the health coverage that had saved me hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical costs over the previous few years.
Knowing that I’d be losing health coverage, I decided to take a new approach to my care. Rather than listening to my doctors (the experts), I’d do my own research… and see if I could solve this mystery that had boggled top neurosurgeon’s minds for years. First, I looked at my lifestyle.
I exercised daily, ate healthily, drank rarely, smoked never, and had monogamous and protected sex. Perhaps my only vice… and one that I was assured was not a problem by numerous doctors (who cited FDA conclusions), was that I drank five Diet Cokes a day. I’d been doing so since I was sixteen.
When I took the time to read the literature on aspartame (the sugar substitute in Diet Coke), I was astounded! Over 75% of complaints reported to the FDA’s Adverse Reaction System (ARMS) were about aspartame. These complaints, which numbered in the thousands each year, reflected the research from large-scale studies showing that aspartame consumption is associated with migraines, seizures, brain tumors, reversible and irreversible brain damage, and hundreds of other maladies.
I stopped drinking Diet Coke… without a doctor’s orders.
Then, slowly, I stopped taking the epilepsy medication… without a doctor’s orders.
It’s been a year since I’ve consumed Diet Coke and six months since I’ve taken a pill. Every single side-effect that had burdened me since I was sixteen years old is now gone. No headaches, no seizures, no blindness, no persistent amnesia, no blurry vision… nothing!
*****
In the United States, cash is king and health care is more about economics than about health. 40% of the 17,800 lobbyists in Washington support health care agendas. And the health care agenda is concerned with one thing: more profits. And though there’s nothing wrong with profits, the fact is that focusing on the bottom line oftentimes interferes with saving lives. Here are two examples of what I mean:
· The cost of my health care – including medication and hospital visits – easily surpassed six figures between ages sixteen and twenty-four. I definitely contributed to the bottom line! Yet doctors weren’t able to help me. Instead, they exacerbated my problems by putting me on medications that I didn’t need, and sticking to the party line by telling me that aspartame wasn’t dangerous. (“If the FDA says it’s safe, it must be safe.”)
· When faced with the option between recommending lifestyle changes and recommending costly surgery, doctors feel more comfortable recommending surgery. A study recently published in JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) and written about today in the New York Times shows that 44% of bypass surgeries shouldn’t be done. They aren’t needed. But they certainly contribute to U.S. hospital’s bottom line… to the tune of $6 billion a year!
The reason the US has a lower life expectancy than Guam or Puerto Rico is because our lifestyles are the biggest determinant of our health and longevity… yet we continue to pretend that they’re unimportant. Doctors treat the health complications of obesity… rather than pushing for us to adjust our lifestyles and get more active. They treat the health complications of aspartame, rather than pushing us to eliminate Diet Coke from our diets.
If doctors can begin recommending lifestyle changes that treat the cause of problems, as well as medical solutions that treat the effects, it may not improve the health care industry’s bottom line, but it’ll certainly improve our heath!
… Don’t get me wrong. I’m not arguing that Western medicine doesn’t save lives or make lives better. It sometimes does! I’m arguing, simply, that longevity and quality of life can oftentimes be solved by lifestyle adjustments rather than medical solutions! And if doctors in the U.S. can tell the difference between the two… then we can offer death and serious illness a pretty powerful one-two punch: healthy lifestyles and revolutionary medical science!
Authors Notes:
· CIA World Fact Book Data on Longevity
· Article About Dominica Centenarians
· Article About Centenarian Lifestyles
· Article About History and Problems of Aspartame
· Article About Health Care Lobbyists
· JAMA Study on Bypass Surgery Recipients
I have no faith in any type of medicine except emergency medicine. I have faith that if I am rushed to an emergency room I will be cared for properly. Beyond that my experience has been frustrating and dehumanizing. The “bottom line” is and will, continue to be the focus of the medical establishment.Profit drives healthcare. This is the antithesis of a profession that claims to be concerned with healing.
I now view it as my duty to die as soon as possible, rather than be a financial burden on the rest of humanity.
You just confirmed what I’ve always suspected: health care isn’t about health at all. I’ll never trust another doctor.
I turned my life around with a radical change in diet. It included stopping red meat, dairy and wheat products. Although medical ‘tests’ showed I wasn’t allergic to them, my migraines, high blood pressure, asthma, depression, IBS and other annoying ailments simply disappeared within two weeks of clean eating. Loss of excess weight was also a pleasing byproduct of that also.
I had clear thinking for the first time in years and went back to do postgrad study.
We certainly are what we eat … and that is something that medicines cannot do for us. Every doctor has a different opinion - you have to work it out for yourself.
Hahah… lovely post! I’ll have to admit; I’m a researcher, part of the medical-industrial complex, and I definitely hate going to doctors. Profit does drive healthcare in my experience, and it’s extremely difficult to find a doctor who actually believes in what they are doing and not for the money or prestige. Or finding someone who’s willing to look and talk to you as a person, not an idiot or another tally for the day’s quota.
But for the meat of your post, about lifestyle changes, there have been instances where doctors have been sued for telling someone that they had to lose weight. See here:
http://www.newsnet5.com/irresistible/4882438/detail.html
Too many people are looking for a quick fix. We live a disposable society, and the “quick fix” is something that’s touted and expected. And doctors, well, at the end of the day, they are offering a service. And the patient can take their business elsewhere.
Hi. I have been reading your blog for a while. Really the best read I have had lately!
I want to ask if this story about a guy (you?) drinking diet coke is real? Or is it just to show how doctors do not recommend lifestyle changes?
If it is real then I am stopping drinking coke right now!
Firstly, the anomaly that is the American health care system is definitely not representative of health internationally.
Secondly, doctor bashing doesn’t make you any smarter or better informed on health. It is hardly the doctor’s fault that the regular person in the United States not only refuses to listen to advise on lifestyle changes, but may even consider suing!
The ridculous health expenses in the US is a result of gross inefficiencies brought about by a dogmatically privatised system. However, not seeing your doctor when you are sick is called stupidity, not wisdom.
Regards.
Great read. I agree that the health care industry is more about economics than health. The FDA and AMA are two of the most corrupt agencies and need to either be reorganized or torn down. If they are so quick to pull something like l-tryptophan off the shelf just to introduce Prozac a day later, who knows what other beneficial drugs/supplements/treatments are being impeded by the FDA and AMA. Maybe these organizations should get back to doing what they’re supposed to, watching out for our health instead of draining our pocketbooks.
: sigh :
Neither the FDA nor the AMA is responsible for the state of the American health care system. The responsibility lies with your government and its history of poor health policy choices which benefit lobby groups rather than the people as a whole.
The majority of pharmaceuticals in the United States is available in the rest of the Western World. A marked difference, however, is that pharmaceuticals are usually vastly less expensive and nor are pharmaceutical companies allowed to directly advertise their products to consumers (who for the most part do not have the knowledge to make an informed decision).
Most Western health systems when compared to the United States focus much more on primary health care, i.e., affordable and accessible general practice. This saves money in the long term.
There are no illusions as to why a number of “poor” nations do well in health. It is not for the reasons espoused in this blog which is a clear false analogy. Countries like Cuba invest heavily into primary and preventative health care. That is not to say that research and investment into advanced medical technologies are not beneficial - the health outcomes of most other comparable Western Nations (e.g., Scandanavia, Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) are better than than nations like Cuba (though at much greater cost).
It is the balance that is important.
As I mentioned before, the US health system is an anomaly. The principles of “Western” medicine (i.e., scientific and evidence based medicine) rather than optimistic “alternative” therapies have a strong history of providing the best outcomes. Those “Carribean” nations that you deride in fact follow evidence based “Western” medicine the most closely - i.e., investment in primary and public health is more cost effective in the long term.
The poor outcomes in the US is the result of a bureacratic monster and political inertia created by idealogues. If Americans want better quality health, then change the system. Scapegoating the clinicians who have to work in the system and have little control is an exercise in futility.
Another reason to stop drinking soda is high fructose corn syrup:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fructose_corn_syrup#Health_effects
Probably every human being with a little bit of salt in their head would have realized a little bit before that maybe it was worth a try stopping this habit given the problems you were experiencing… it is because of people like you that the world is scared of Americans…
My wife swapped from Coke to Diet Coke for a short while (couple months?) and would have intolerable headaches and hand tremors/pangs. Dropped the Diet Coke and all returned to normal.
-Stebain
I’m an American living in France. Here the healthcare delivery system is so good that I shudder to think of returning to the US for a visit, and finding myself in need of the US system.
If I was in condition to do so, I would probably do what you did in Italy, sneak out of the hospital and take the first flight back here to be cared for honestly and correctly.
This is surely not what I was taught when I was a boy on Long Island.
You have a fascinating story, but try over-hard (and wrongly) to blame “medical science”, instead of the broken political interference that’s corrupted it.
The central problem is twofold:
* Lacking the resources to carry out every experiment ever conducted themselves, doctors believed the FDA’s advice.
* The FDA is heavily compromised by politics and pressure from various groups.
“Medical science” is the entity that allowed you to *find out* Aspartamine was bad for you. Politics is what prevented your doctors from finding out and telling you. Oh, and given your story covers in excess of a five-year span, how long had medical science been aware of the problems with Aspartamine?
Don’t get me wrong - I have every sympathy in the world for you, but blame the cause of the problem (politics), not the reason you realised there even *is* a solution (medical science)
Oh, and the doctors likely don’t bother suggesting major lifestyle changes because so many of your countrymen are highly unlikely to even cross the *road* if they think they can get a pill to sort it out quicker.
Give a fat woman at risk of a heart attack some pills and tell her she’s got an “ism” or an “itis” and she’ll love you for ever. Tell her to stop stuffing doughnuts in her face sixteen times a day and you’ll be on the wrong end of a lawsuit before the echoes have even died away.
Lifestyle changes require personal responsibility and hard work. Pills, creams and even surgery are easy, and make the recipient a “victim”, worthy of support and care. Your countrymen are largely lazy and have a baseless sense of entitlement. Why do you think doctors are more likely to prescribe pills and surgery than telling people to mend their ways.
Oh, and FWIW? No decent dietician (or even sensible adult) is going to recommend five cans of diet coke a day as healthy, especially if you’re suffering with headaches. This isn’t a failing of medical science - it’s a failing of common sense.
I enjoyed the article. I thought it was compelling and a good, quick, microcosm of what’s wrong with American health care. I have two objections to comments made in this string so far:
1. For Shaper: Whether or not American politics is infesting our health care doesn’t change the fact that our health care system is infested. And though Dan could have been more specific in his usage of medical science (applications of medical science?) it’s pretty clear to almost any U.S. citizen, that medical science is not being optimized (and is thus problematic) because it fails to integrate a wholistic approach into healing a person.
2. For Shaper and Kavillo: Most people in the U.S. trust their doctors. And if their doctors say that a habit (like drinking Diet Coke) is not dangerous, then they’ll continue engaging in it. Diet Coke, like other caffienated drinks as well as drinks with aspartame, can be very addictive. For many people it’s VERY DIFFICULT to stop drinking diet coke. Also, doctor’s can be sued in the U.S. for asking you to make any lifestyle change. I don’t have the time to look up the research, but I think Quirksalight posted a link to at least one article about this…
My nephew is a doctor. He told me after his first two years of interning that it would be good advice if everybody stayed as far away from doctors as possible. He left the “corporate” hospital and is now working in an emergency/walk-in type clinic and handles the serious injuries. I don’t know all the details but he says he feels like he’s actually helping people now instead of just dispensing pills.
umm… you defiantly had some stupid doctor’s… any good doctor that decided you had epilepsy.. also would have said “hey, caffeine lowers the threshold for seizures…make sure you don’t have any” so…if they had told you that in itself… maybe the diet coke drinking would have stopped(unless you drink the caffeine free version) and thus, your problem would have stopped…even though it was wrongly diagnosed…if that made any sense…
If you’re looking for alternative methods of controlling epilepsy you may be interested in this:
http://saltedlithium.wordpress.com/2007/01/18/graphic_video_of_epileptic_seizure_bringing_awareness_to_medical_marijuana/
The fault of American’s state of health is not with the government, doctor’s, pharmaceutical companies, or any other organization. It lies with you. Look around, people here eat whatever they want, they don’t exercise - basically they are killing themselves. It is not a mass conspiracy it typical American laziness. You simply cannot consume McDonalds, Cokes (Diet or otherwise), hydrogenated oil, corn syrup, etc and expect your body to just bounce back. The writer of this article ran to the doctor as his first choice and did not consider other options. We want eat all this crap and then when we feel ill we want a pill to make it all better. You cite Dominica as a rural simple place that does not have access to the same western medicine, well, they also are not exposed to the same western diet and laziness. They walk most places are basically active, and eat natural foods. Also, you can criticize modern medicine - but the real purpose of modern medicine is save peoples lives but clearly it cannot correct all of these self inflicted maladies.
If the human race were to become self-aware to a point where they could modify themselves to achieve optimum health … it would put many high paid industries such as the medical profession and advertising out of work. It is after all, a job, and it is in their best interests not to eradicate illness and to keep fueling desire. What the brain takes in in the form of information becomes the reality for the body.
It took me thirty-six years to change doctors because I felt I had some kind of loyalty to him, he did after all, deliver me as a baby and both of my children. But he failed to listen or educate and was very happy to hand out pills to treat symptoms … including a prolonged course of Voltaren that caused a stomach ulcer.
In saying that, a lovely man with an incredible family … just doing his job.
You’ve got to have faith in them to a high degree, but at some point we have to take responsibility for our own health.
Ohhh. This is a hot spot for me. I suffered very serious effects due to the invasion of my body by the stupid little spirochete that causes ‘Lyme Disease’.
Doctors predicted that an active life was out of the question, and that I would never be the same. I had a hole in my lung, irregular heart beat that caused intense chest pain, unbelievable headaches, and debilitating and chronic fatigue. This was in addition to the damage done to my digestive system, and my immune system. I had pneumonia, a serious mouth infection that resulted in a root canal, and a series of hard to get rid of colds, and weird symptoms. The list really goes on. The antibiotics upon antibiotics reeked havoc with my body, and was like chemotherapy. After a time, they gave up and told me that I ‘just had to live with it’… and that was just about all the compassion and expertise that I got from the top lyme doctors in the country. I mean the ‘top’ ones…
I was self-employed, and paid for the abuse out of pocket. Needless to say, I had hoped for a little more hope after two years.
My story starts with a homeopathic doctor, and liquid vitamins. After another two years, I have a healthy active life, and have just started jogging a couple of weeks ago. That is a miracle to me. I am starting a new business, and finally feel like I am getting my life back.
Money spent on Doctors: $56,000
Return: no hope, might as well give up.
Money spent on homeopathy:$260.00
Money spent on liquid vitamins:$300.00 per year.
Return: Health and Life and Hope
I am also glad to see that others are looking at Nutrition and self-empowerment. I am selling a liquid supplement these days, and if I were to claim that it would help people, I would be breaking the “LAW”.
Just another thing that makes you say “hmmmmmmm.”
I had similar problems with Diet Coke. The specific problems I get from consuming Aspartame are arthritis pains in all my joints. At one point I had to have wrist braces on both hands and use a heating pad on my chair at home and at work. I stumbled across some information about Aspartame/nutrasweet and decided to stop drinking products which had it in them and now 3 years later I’m totally recovered. I had another problem which Dr’s couldn’t figure out either that I fixed on my own this summer. I was having uncontrollable sweating and found that my consumption of Caffeine was to blame. If I cut out caffeine my sweating stops after a few days. If I drink even a couple of caffeinated beverages it starts up again. Weird eh?
My Dr. doesn’t believe me that just stopping these two things could make a difference.
Thank God my mom had breast cancer…
Yup, you heard that right! She survived it by the way thanks to the so-called “alternative” (or is it God’s way?) medicine… well you know… boosting the God-given software called the immune system and let it take care of its job (defending your health).
If not for this experience my mom wouldn’t have sought for “alternative” cures for her illness and we wouldn’t have been exposed to such “unconventional?” means to health.
Personally I have already taken an interest in finding out more (thanks to the internet) about wellness concepts… about being well and not just fighting illnesses.
Now I know that at its core, western medicine (which is actually at it’s infancy compared to natural means) is not really concerned with wellness… if it is, then it’ll be out of business!
Here’s a fave site expounding more (and fighting against) big pharma’s “business with disease” strategy:
The Pharmaceutical ‘Business With Disease’
http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/PHARMACEUTICAL_BUSINESS/index.html
To the unaware there is even a move to suppress(?) the wellness revolution(or should I say re-discovery?):
Anti-Vitamin Regulations (Codex Alimentarius)
http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/features/codex_wto.html
Here’s another fave wellness site:
http://www.mercola.com/townofallopath/townofallopath.htm
Enjoy and watch the movie and realize the sad state of “health” care.
Good Health to All!
Hi,
I am a medical student and have a couple of comments on your interesting article.
About the U.S. health expenditure - you are absolutely right, the U.S. spends more than any country on healthcare, but has little to show for it compared to other countries. That is because the amount of money spent is badly spent:instead of investing in healthcare services per se, there are plenty of “middleman” involved, mainly the insurance and pharmaceutical companies. They have a vested interest in keeping the status quo (and making it worse).
This is why an ever-growing number of doctors and health professionals are advocating for Universal Healthcare, based on the successful Canadian model. The American Medical Student Association (AMSA), of which I am a part of, has great info on Universal Health Care initiatives here, be sure to check them out. The members of the Health Policy Action Committee also have a blog called Med Student Wonks if you want to read it.
The business lobby, and especially the right-wing noise machine, doesn’t hesitate in calling Universal Health Care un-American… because Universal Health Care is only practiced by “Socialist” countries and the U.S. of A. is a proud “Capitalist” country… well you get my drift.
About professional organizations - they are sometimes part of the problem as well. The FDA behaves sometimes, to put it bluntly, as Big Pharma’s bitch, and looks the other way when approving drugs that may or may not have all of its research in order. And the American Medical Association has sold out the medical profession on numerous occasions, most notably by selling their doctors (member) records to pharmaceutical companies.
About your illness - obviously, doctors do NOT know everything. That’s a hard pill to swallow for most of us, specially those with the fancier specializations (neurology, surgery). Most doctors are forced, so to speak, towards making incorrect diagnosis for various reasons… you probably know them. One of them though, is that doctors are always against the clock - more patients, more patients, more patients, & fast, fast, fast! Five freakin’ minutes on a patient, some pills, go home and call me later. As it is now, it is like a circus: 1-2 hours of waiting time, 20 minutes filling out papers, and only 5 minutes of actual contact.
Which leads me to your health problems. Doctors are quick to diagnose obscure diseases as a “catch-all” label, while hardly taking the time to actually ask the patient about his lifestyle, or his life in general. Where do you live, a nice part or in a bad one? What do you eat - tell me a typical day. What drugs do you take? Caffeine is a drug by the way, and in high doses DOES cause seizures, though people’s thresholds vary widely (do NOT give children Mountain Dew). What about your family, any history of disease? You know, more social stuff - most doctors don’t bother with that, but it’s actually a huge deal. The common stuff is pretty easy to diagnose and we can get away with those 5 minutes, but the complicated cases need more than time - they need our undivided attention, and paused and careful thought.
Doctors try to rebel against this in one way or another. For example, some pediatricians I know - what I want to be eventually - have regular, uninsured patients in the morning and then a private practice in the evening.
Hope my long commentary helps somewhat. I’m glad you are feeling better!
Several authorities on the medical industry have told me that doctors (read:AMA) prefer to keep a patient ill rather than permanently cure them. Think about it. When a doctor cures you , that doctor just lost his or her best customer. The only hope of repeat business is to keep you sick.
That’s why the yardstick for success in cancer is “Five-year survivorship” statistics. If my mechanic treated my car like that, I’d get a new mechanic!. The only statistic for success should be “Is the patient cured?” I’ll bet some of you are thinking, “They can’t cure cancer yet,” to which I’d reply, Read this: http://halfnonprofit.wordpress.com/tag/cesium-chloride/ .
I think the author paints with a brush that is both to wide and to narrow.
Too wide? For example, the message of Dr. Weil (head of the med school at the University of Arizona at Tucson) stresses that everyone is responsible for his own health. Also, he states that traditional medicine is primarly useful for emergencies and infectious deseases, but worthless or harmful for cronic illness or deseases of ageing. (In general, Dr. Weil is not well liked by many health professionals,) Anyone who wants to take the responsiblity for his own health would do well to read Dr. Weil. Also, we should respect the work of public health and preventive medicine pesonal.
Too narrow? Doctor’s don’t cause such deseases as obesity, lung cancer, emphysema, AIDs, diabetes, etc.. Also, what about the polluters, the drug industry, the insurance business, the cigarette industry, the advertisers, the food industry, etc., etc.?
Science is one of our least broken things. Government, media and religion all are much more broken. Many of the ‘failures of science’ were actually political overrides. Not science at all.
For years, the actual scientists at the FDA said no to aspartame on the basis of in vitro chemistry and in vivo animal studies. Unfortunatly, our politicians are all for sale and so Reagan kept firing the people who said no until in the end he finally had to appoint a non-science guy as head of the FDA to rubber stamp it. It’s all a matter of public record. Please google it.
So the problem is not science or scientists but rather anti-science morons who override real science for selfish reasons. BTW - the profits on artifical sweeteners is staggering, some are thousands of times sweeter than sugar. That’s the real reason they want them, not because they care about people being fat.
I congratulate you on doing the one thing that
Americans seem to find the most distasteful in health care….taking responsibility for your own health. Way too many of us are too illiterate in science and medicine and simply take what we are given. No, the government is not responsible for your health. No, the doctor is not responsible for your health. Not your mommy, not your daddy, no….sorry, it is you that is responsible. All of us are variations on a theme. While our body chemistries are nearly the same…the do, in fact, differ. While the difference is slight…it does make a huge difference in the treatments available. Further, neither your doctor nor any specialist can be “up” on every possible therapy and cure. And, with the advent of the internet, it is easier and easier for us to be proactive in our own care. I have turned down many perscriptions, and my current doctor applauds me….others did not. I do not assume they hold all the keys. But, I do realize they understand the body better than I do…in general. But, they do not know how I feel. Neither do they know exactly the side effects that are occurring to me….I have to pay attention. I must take care. Yes, our life expectancy may not be as high as those of some smaller countries…but, I see few people heading over there for care. No, the heads of state come here. We do have the best, and for the most part the brightest, but they cannot undo the things we do to ourselves. And, they cannot get inside our heads and know what is going on. And, while some homeopathy is quite remarkable, much of it is merely fuss and bother. The key, for most things, is moderation. Nothing in excess. Look around. We live pretty good. Most of our elderly, today, are not crippled up, as years ago, they are active. People my age, 47, used to be nearly used up…heck, I am middle aged now. Yes, mistakes happen. Yes, the FDA is quite whacked, but we must be careful about the changes we make. While medicine could be greatly improved, why don’t we cast aside the foolish lawsuits first that cause our doctors to pay more in insurance than operating costs…hmmmm??? If we are to replace the current system…do we want to replace it with the same people who have taken over airport security???? I just don’t know the answer.
Good article!
This is indeed a good article on how people ignore their eating habits or diet, and run behind doctors.
I am from India, and not a doctor. In India, we have ancient medical system called as Ayurveda, which is practised from thousands of years by Indians.
Fortunatly I have not suffered from any decease till date and rarely visited doctors, in my 26yrs of life.
When I was 20, I was suffering from Acidity, and could not eat spicey and india masala food at all.
I taken lot of pils which from local drug but it was no help.
Finaly I visited one of a old Ayurveda doctor, who was himself 75 yrs old but still practicing. He done some dianosis and asked me to change my food habits, stop eating spicy food, avoid late night work, (as I was doing my graduation I was studing hard even whole night most of the times.) and gave me some traditional medicines.
With in weeks time I was feeling better.
In India, we believe that what we eat, so our body will be.
So old people used to cross 100 easily.
But now because of more western influence, people are changing lifestyle, eating more Pizzas, burgers and drinking coke and suffering from more and more deceses.
If we keep our diet and life style controlled, we will rearly have to go to doctors.
If you want to know more about Ayurveda and helthy lifestyle you can check
http://indianmedicine.nic.in/html/ayurveda/ayurveda.htm
http://www.ayurveda.com/
http://ayushayurveda.com
Hope this helps who are suffering from major deceses.
Great story. I too know how much you can change in your life by simply adopting healthy habits. Ever since I paid a visit to an orthomolecular dietist and took her advice, I’ve been doing way better than I could ever have hoped for.
However, I don’t think this story illustrates that doctors are not on our side. What it *does* illustrate, is doctor’s stupidity and stubbornness to accept the fact that a good diet can work miracles for your health.
A ’standard’ healthcare doctor will never tell you to stop drinking coffee if you’re bleeding out of your ass due to an infection in your intestinal tract.
An ‘alternative’ orthomolecular dietist, however, will.
And it makes all the difference.
Why all standard healthcare doctors suffer from this problem… I’ll never know. It’s like mass-stupidity or something.
For 10 years, I had to endure problems with pediatritions and my two sons. (We had an even longer time with the severe stomach pains my husband suffered.) My first son was diagnosed as “nothing wrong with him…stop feeding him junk food”, despite the fact that he didn’t talk until he was four, and was fed a very good low calorie diet (he just ate a LOT of it). Our second pediatrition got on the ball with our younger son (who had a sudden drop off in height and weight when put on solid food) and ordered every test for every exotic baby disease, which all turned out negative. So she suggested growth hormone treatments, which we turned down. Like the previous pediatrition, the fact that he wasn’t talking was ignored.
Fearing our younger son would have the same school problems (primarily with reading and speech) that our older son had, we put him in a specialist preschool and got him started on speech therapy. He still didn’t talk. He was pre-diagnosed by the educators with autism.
Then, when our younger son was five and older son was ten, my husbands step-mother gave my husband a diagnosis for an illness he himself suffered with since he was around 10 years old…he was allergic to eggs. Considering the possibility, both our sons wen on an egg-free diet. Within a year, our older son did not have to take speech therapy, and was doing better at reading. Our younger son was amazing, though…he started talking in full sentences, could read better than he could speak, and started growing like a weed.
All of the crap we went through, all of the specialists in education and all of the painful blood tests and suggestions by earnest doctors. And all we needed was a simple allergy test, and the removal of that food from their diet. And to think that all of their problems were correctly diagnosed by a travel agent.
As for aspartame, we found that our younger sons symptoms of autism return if he consumes any, so our children are kept far away from it.
Doctors aren’t God, and medicine, although a precise science, may fail to completely comprehend the workings of the body. But I have faith in both because they are my best options. The problem is in looking for a doctor one can put his trust on. And there are, if one looks hard enough.
A pretty good post. I have the similar exprience. agree with and recommend. cheers!
Thank you for this beautifully written post. You’ve stated so clearly, with such a compelling illustration from your own experience, so many things that need to be said about the shortcomings of our (US) healthcare system (sickcare system). I’m so glad you made the discoveries you did and are well again! I appreciate also that you do not write in a spiteful, condemning tone, and do acknowledge that sometimes our medical system does some great things. I hope this post will be read by many, many people and I will do my part by referencing it in my blog in an upcoming post.
My journey has brought me to a point where holistic/alternative medicine are my first resort, and conventional/allopathic medicine are my last resort, unless I were to be dealing with something really acute like a broken bone or heart attack. Since my life has been saved on at least one occasion by our medical system, I certainly wouldn’t throw it out, but I will always look for holistic solutions that support health rather than attack disease (and create more disease as a side effect) whenever I can. I’ve spent a lot of time studying holistic approaches and have had a lot of success over the years.
It’s important to realize that holistic medicine can take more time for healing, and almost always requires that we participate more in our own self-care. Being healthy takes a commitment to ourselves and a willingness to invest time and effort in cultivating healthy habits and learning new ways of doing things. We also have to stand as our own mediator between the conventional and holistic models. I’ve had to learn to tell my doctor that I appreciate his knowledge and viewpoint, but that I’m choosing at times to take a different approach. I’ve had to learn to know my own body and what it is telling me and to trust my own decisions and be responsible for them.
Thanks again for your wonderful post!
Excellent article.Sadly a majority of Healthcare Professionals are little more than facilitators for Pharmaceutical companies who often times know little more than a so called lay person with an unbiased attitude and an open mind.We all need to wake up and take responsibility for ourselves
Excellent article! Of course, you’re preaching to the choir in my case having lost so much of my life to disease which could have been treated very early on. But, tests are gold and if they don’t show something then it can’t be true! There’s a lot of money invested in patents for lab tests.
I’m recovering now and now able to just use natural medicine (required very aggressive antibiotics for years to save my life). Sometimes doctors don’t do enough - they try to find the easy way out if a case is complex. In your case, the easy way was to just show meds at you that you didn’t need rather than pick through your diet. In my case, my lifestyle and diet were almost perfect and yet I was dying. But, it wasn’t easy to diagnose and the docs got annoyed by me and sent me away. The good docs I’ve met actually tried to treat me holistically as best they could and that finally led me to the correct diagnosis and healing.
It takes effort and most docs are REALLY f’in lazy.
As a practicing licensed doctor of Oriental medicine (OMD/DOM) and licensed acupuncturist (LAc), I appreciate your self-responsibility, self-care, and committed approach. Everyone with the aim for health should be half as willing to take such a degree of responsibility and independence. I also personally appreciate your level argument… Western medicine is not itself an evil — rather, profiteering over health care is a problem. Also, Western medicine and trauma care is one of modern society’s great inventions. However, for chronic complaints such as yours Western medicine is often misguided and confused by an overly reductionist approach that misses the big picture.
Big picture? In this case I’m referring to one of my main mantras regarding natural holistic health care: RULE NUMBER 1 - DON’T FEED THE PROBLEM!
Nicely written post. However, you need to be very careful about the statistics involved here. Not everyone is going to respond to lifestyle changes the way you did. An overwhelming majority of people are diagnosed with specific diseases, and require specific medications. Lifestyle changes are not going to fix autoimmune diseases, or hormonal imbalances, or structural defects in the heart. Perhaps you would have been fine if you stopped the medication and still drank the diet coke? You can’t say for sure. The fact of the matter is that you are exposed to all types of synthetic materials, everyday. You are blasted with radiation from the sun. You are coughed on by the guy next to you on the bus. Ideally, it would be great to subtract all of these variables from your life. But it’s obviously not possible. We do require medical intervention. Look at what the life expectancy was in this country 200 years ago, and compare today’s to it. Don’t compare it to a bunch of people living on a Caribbean island, soaking up sunshine, eating rice and seafood everyday, and living with a fraction of our society’s stresses.
I read this an my first reaction was - “this is exactly what is wrong with the US today”.
1. You were surprised that a country like Dominica has a high number of centenarians, but as you pointed out they have active lifestyles.
2. You didn’t want health care in Italy because you thought it wouldn’t be good enough.
3. You drank 5 diet cokes a day without considering the consequences.
4. You have to pay for health cover.
The US is a great country, but there are very few things now where it is the best. Maybe with everything that is going wrong now you’ll get a massive wake-up call and start to put things right, but you consume too much, waste too much, and many countries in the world have a health service that is infinitely better and cheaper.
I know it doesn’t make easy reading, but it’s true. Until you realise it, you’ll continue to be overtaken by countries who have seen what can be achieved, and also what can go wrong.
Are you sure of your facts
By this rakinking the USA is well down the list
List by the United Nations (average for the 2005-2010 period)
Rank ↓ Country/territory ↓ Life expectancy at birth (years) ↓
Overall Male Female
World average 67.2 65.0 69.5
1 Japan 82.6 79.0 86.1
2 Hong Kong SAR ( PRC) 82.2 79.4 85.1
3 Iceland 81.8 80.2 83.3
4 Switzerland 81.7 79.0 84.2
5 Australia 81.2 78.9 83.6
6 Spain 80.9 77.7 84.2
7 Sweden 80.9 78.7 83.0
8 Israel 80.7 78.5 82.8
9 Macau SAR ( PRC) 80.7 78.5 82.8
10 France (metropolitan) 80.7 77.1 84.1
11 Canada 80.7 78.3 82.9
12 Italy 80.5 77.5 83.5
13 New Zealand 80.2 78.2 82.2
14 Norway 80.2 77.8 82.5
15 Singapore 80.0 78.0 81.9
16 Austria 79.8 76.9 82.6
17 Netherlands 79.8 77.5 81.9
18 Martinique ( France) 79.5 76.5 82.3
19 Greece 79.5 77.1 81.9
20 Belgium 79.4 76.5 82.3
21 Malta 79.4 77.3 81.3
22 United Kingdom 79.4 77.2 81.6
23 Germany 79.4 76.5 82.1
24 U.S. Virgin Islands ( US) 79.4 75.5 83.3
25 Finland 79.3 76.1 82.4
26 Guadeloupe ( France) 79.2 76.0 82.2
27 Channel Islands ( Jersey and Guernsey) ( UK) 79.0 76.6 81.5
28 Cyprus 79.0 76.5 81.6
29 Ireland 78.9 76.5 81.3
30 Costa Rica 78.8 76.5 81.2
31 Puerto Rico ( US) 78.7 74.7 82.7
32 Luxembourg 78.7 75.7 81.6
33 United Arab Emirates 78.7 77.2 81.5
34 South Korea 78.6 75.0 82.2
35 Chile 78.6 75.5 81.5
36 Denmark 78.3 76.0 80.6
37 Cuba 78.3 76.2 80.4
38 United States 78.2 75.6 80.8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
Health Statistics > Health care funding > Public per capita (most recent) by country
VIEW DATA: Totals
Definition Source Printable version
Bar Graph Map Correlations
Showing latest available data.
Rank Countries Amount (top to bottom)
#1 Iceland: $2,202.00 per capita
#2 Germany: $2,063.00 per capita
#3 United States: $2,051.00 per capita
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_hea_car_fun_pub_per_cap-care-funding-public-per-capita
I drink diet coke and have not had any problems related to it. I did drink regular cokes for many years and became very fat, then developed metabolic syndrome, which I treated with diet and exercise on the advice of, you guessed it, a doctor. He said, eat veggies and fruit instead of bread and cheese and meat, don’t drink sodas, don’t smoke and walk 30 minutes a day. I did this, lost 30 lbs and got off medications. There are good doctors and bad doctors. There is a business interest associated with health care that should be more regulated. Individual responsibility is the key to all things in capitalist society. Capitalism requires the individual to be smart and self-reliant. Wealth can be bad for yer health. Your health is your responsibility, not the corporate health system. Thanks for this post. Very sincere and interesting lessons to learn. All love to everyone and good health.
I suffered from a mystery illness from 19 to 23 years old. I had a variety gastric and other miscellaneous problems which most doctors said which was gastritis. I was told to clean up my diet and exercise more; I did all those and I still got worse.
I was put through test after test just to have them come up negative. They also had me on pills to counteract the side effects from the pills that were suppose to be helping me. Towards the end of all this I was losing weight rapidly and daily life with this unknown pain became a nightmare.
They told me I had colon caner or Crohn’s disease at one point making me a nervous wreck. The results of the colonoscopy were negative and the endoscopy was fine except for some mild stomach irritation.
If the doctor had bothered to look at my small intestine during the endoscopy he would have seen I was suffering from Celiac’s disease; this is where gluten from wheat, rye, and barley attacks the lining of the small intestine causing all of the symptoms I had from rashes to bleeding in sensitive areas.
A nurse practitioner I saw after the tests looked at my chart and told me to try the gluten free diet. The next day my stomach pain was gone and within a few months my other problems were gone, as well.
I don’t need any pills or special treatments to manage this disease, all I have to do is stay away from gluten. And I don’t think that’s very cost effective to the health industry.
This article was a great springboard. For me personally, it is regular sugar, not aspartame that is a problem and has contributed to many health problems. No doctor or drug was any help. In fact, the drugs were detrimental. What happened to do no harm? Once I had an intense case of hives all over my body, I went to two dermatologists, neither of who could diagnose what it was, but loaded me up with steroid creams. I found out by trial and error that I am hypersensitive to most chemical household products. Once I eliminated them (and the cream), my rash and eczema went away completely.
I was a loyal prescriber to traditional medicine for most of my life because that was what I was taught. But after trying everything and still feeling horrible, I knew I had to search for answers elsewhere. People only seek out alternative answers when the easy and familiar ones don’t work. Unless you have been brought up to really understand health, you are likely to fall into the drug company/media/society trap. It is true that Americans do not take personal responsibility for their health - particularly in the forms of diet choices and exercise.
How can you expect most people to make healthy choices when the information provided by the supposedly trustworthy health authorities, schools, and government minimizes the impact of such things, or even dismisses/denies their importance entirely? They deny the connection between specific dietary and lifestyle choices and resulting illnesses. Our society does not support health consciousness. It is our choice, but we should not judge the American populous so harshly; it is very difficult to make those healthy choices when you are surrounded almost entirely by unhealthy and unsupportive influences.
Countries like that have citizens that live longer because their diet is better than ours in that they’re NOT being poisoned. MSG does the same stuff too, for your info
(aka free glutamic acid)
I have a similar story to yours, only I started avoiding msg and the rare amount of aspartame that I was consuming. My problem was mostly msg.
I have some faith in medicine as I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for having the proper heart surgeries, but for the stuff like drug, much much much less faith.
Okay firstly i am sorry to hear about your sickness,having said that,you are naive to think that modern medication or any medication for that matter will help you if you are in a rut.
People just know about stuff by experimenting,they never know how exactly it works…They just know that this stuff has a positive influence or that medication can help…thats all..its impossible for nature to heal all your sickness and its definitely a uphill task for doctors to know about complete human body and how it works.
I have never had faith in our health care system here in America. You are one of the many victims in our doctors trying to make a buck. Doctors will put anyone on a medication if they want it. This is a sad fact. I do not go to doctors. Last time I did I am still paying for it and it was over 2 years ago and they didn’t know what was wrong with me. So I decided to just take matters into my own hands. I honestly believe that the best medicines are diet, exercise, and, for me, meditation. As someone else posted, WE ARE WHAT WE EAT!
Thanks for the info. It clarified what I knew all along: an active lifestyle, eating healthy foods, and drinking 6-8 glasses of water/day will increase one’s longevity. Great post.