It is Thanksgiving here in the USA, (actually Thanksgiving Day is Thursday). I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving.
Since I have family coming to town, family obligations and so forth, I will be taking the week off from the Internet, which means no posting to my blogs and no responding to emails for the rest of this week. I will resume my Internet activities next week.
Poll Question
In the upper right of this blog, you will find a poll question asking you to please indicate your age group. Please take a moment to do so. This information will help me better understand who my audience is.
Your response will be anonymous.
Suggested Reading
If you have some spare time on your hands this week and want something to do, here is a short list of recent posts that you may have missed:
The Great Thanksgiving Hoax - Richard Maybury's essay is perfect reading for this time of year.
Sustainable Health Care - Ever wonder what a truly affordable and sustainable health care system would look like?
Is Food the Last Thing to Worry About? - My comments on a recent essay by Toby Hemenway, one of my favorite permaculture writers.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Tim Gamble
http://twitter.com/TimGamble
Monday, November 23, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Sustainable Health Care
[Note: This is a revised version of an earlier essay.]
When we think of a sustainable future, most of us tend to think of food, water and energy, as well as major environmental concerns such as climate change and deforestation. These are very valid concerns, but there are other aspects of a sustainable future that we need to also consider. One of those other aspects is building a sustainable health care system.
Persistent reports of prescription drug risks and FDA warnings that the medicine chest of drugs that have been long prescribed for children and adults have serious side effects – such as death – have become quite numerous in recent years. With increasing frequency, we hear news that even the most expensive drugs are laced with unregulated compounds that are “Made in China” or other third world countries with little oversight.
Add to these dangers of modern medicine the fast rising cost of health care, the decreasing frequency of health insurance being offered through the workplace, and the high likelihood of any government provided health care equaling rationed care at best, and we are entering a perfect storm that should gravely concern everyone.
The actual problem with our modern health care system is that we don't actually have a health care system. Instead, we have a disease care system. If you get sick, then our medical system swings into action with drug therapies and invasive surgeries to take care of your disease.
But drugs and surgeries are potentially dangerous and quite expensive. Wouldn't it be nice to actually take care of our health, so that we get sick less often and less seriously? Wouldn't it be nice to have a health care system that actually takes care of our health, not just our diseases? The cheapest and easiest way to reduce medical costs is to need less medical care by actually taking care of our health.
Well, we can wait around for the AMA or the Federal Government to move towards common sense, or we can take matters into our own hands. Fortunately, there are a growing number of researchers, medical doctors and other health professionals that are increasingly embracing holistic and natural health practices, aiming first to keep people healthy, then looking to natural healing alternatives before pushing drugs and surgery. This approach is known as Integrative Medicine and is now being taught at many medical schools such as the University of Arizona and Duke University.
These doctors are in no way rejecting science or modern medicine (though there are some charlatans and "new age" quacks who do). After all, they recognize that modern medicine is making remarkable breakthroughs in the treatment of many diseases. Instead, these doctors and researchers are embracing the best of modern medicine, while first seeking to prevent disease (true health care, rather than disease care), then seeking to treat the whole person, rather than just the disease.
The difference in the traditional approach to medicine and the integrative approach is simply in their priorities. Integrative medicine, by making preventative health care the first priority, then seeking less expensive alternatives before resorting to expensive and dangerous drug therapies and invasive surgeries, offers the best hope for a truly sustainable, and less costly, health care system.
Obviously we cannot prevent all diseases all the time. People will still get sick and injured. But we can greatly reduce the frequency and severity with which people get sick. This is especially true for diseases that are often caused or made worse by poor lifestyle choices - diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease and many cancers, among others.
Individuals and families can begin immediately taking responsibility for taking care of their own health. Actually, this point six of the seven points of my Modern Victory Movement concept. We all know the basic things we need to do to take care of our health, such as not smoking, eating healthy and getting adequate exercise. There are a lot of good books, websites and other resources out there to guide us on our path to good health.
Workplaces, churches, synagogues, and community organizations can help by offering programs designed to help people stop smoking, fight drug and alcohol addiction, manage stress, get more exercise, learn how to eat healthy and provide support for weight loss.
The food industry can help by adopting the more accurate and easier to understand nutrition labels as proposed by the Center For Science in the Public Interest (see the article in the December 2009 issue of Nutrition Action), so that people can make better, more informed choices.
The medical establishment and the government can do their part by embracing and promoting integrative medicine and a "prevention first" health care system.
-------
I want make everyone aware that I am on Twitter. You can find me at http://twitter.com/TimGamble . Not only do I alert people whenever I make an important blog post to any of my blogs, but I occasionally point out additional news, articles and websites that may be of interest. I also let people in on some of the things going on in my life outside my blogging. But don't worry, I never tweet more than once or twice a day, and many days I don't tweet at all, so you want be flooded with tweets if you start following me.
Thanks for reading the Sustainable Future blog!
When we think of a sustainable future, most of us tend to think of food, water and energy, as well as major environmental concerns such as climate change and deforestation. These are very valid concerns, but there are other aspects of a sustainable future that we need to also consider. One of those other aspects is building a sustainable health care system.
Persistent reports of prescription drug risks and FDA warnings that the medicine chest of drugs that have been long prescribed for children and adults have serious side effects – such as death – have become quite numerous in recent years. With increasing frequency, we hear news that even the most expensive drugs are laced with unregulated compounds that are “Made in China” or other third world countries with little oversight.
Add to these dangers of modern medicine the fast rising cost of health care, the decreasing frequency of health insurance being offered through the workplace, and the high likelihood of any government provided health care equaling rationed care at best, and we are entering a perfect storm that should gravely concern everyone.
The actual problem with our modern health care system is that we don't actually have a health care system. Instead, we have a disease care system. If you get sick, then our medical system swings into action with drug therapies and invasive surgeries to take care of your disease.
But drugs and surgeries are potentially dangerous and quite expensive. Wouldn't it be nice to actually take care of our health, so that we get sick less often and less seriously? Wouldn't it be nice to have a health care system that actually takes care of our health, not just our diseases? The cheapest and easiest way to reduce medical costs is to need less medical care by actually taking care of our health.
Well, we can wait around for the AMA or the Federal Government to move towards common sense, or we can take matters into our own hands. Fortunately, there are a growing number of researchers, medical doctors and other health professionals that are increasingly embracing holistic and natural health practices, aiming first to keep people healthy, then looking to natural healing alternatives before pushing drugs and surgery. This approach is known as Integrative Medicine and is now being taught at many medical schools such as the University of Arizona and Duke University.
These doctors are in no way rejecting science or modern medicine (though there are some charlatans and "new age" quacks who do). After all, they recognize that modern medicine is making remarkable breakthroughs in the treatment of many diseases. Instead, these doctors and researchers are embracing the best of modern medicine, while first seeking to prevent disease (true health care, rather than disease care), then seeking to treat the whole person, rather than just the disease.
The difference in the traditional approach to medicine and the integrative approach is simply in their priorities. Integrative medicine, by making preventative health care the first priority, then seeking less expensive alternatives before resorting to expensive and dangerous drug therapies and invasive surgeries, offers the best hope for a truly sustainable, and less costly, health care system.
Obviously we cannot prevent all diseases all the time. People will still get sick and injured. But we can greatly reduce the frequency and severity with which people get sick. This is especially true for diseases that are often caused or made worse by poor lifestyle choices - diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease and many cancers, among others.
Individuals and families can begin immediately taking responsibility for taking care of their own health. Actually, this point six of the seven points of my Modern Victory Movement concept. We all know the basic things we need to do to take care of our health, such as not smoking, eating healthy and getting adequate exercise. There are a lot of good books, websites and other resources out there to guide us on our path to good health.
Workplaces, churches, synagogues, and community organizations can help by offering programs designed to help people stop smoking, fight drug and alcohol addiction, manage stress, get more exercise, learn how to eat healthy and provide support for weight loss.
The food industry can help by adopting the more accurate and easier to understand nutrition labels as proposed by the Center For Science in the Public Interest (see the article in the December 2009 issue of Nutrition Action), so that people can make better, more informed choices.
The medical establishment and the government can do their part by embracing and promoting integrative medicine and a "prevention first" health care system.
-------
I want make everyone aware that I am on Twitter. You can find me at http://twitter.com/TimGamble . Not only do I alert people whenever I make an important blog post to any of my blogs, but I occasionally point out additional news, articles and websites that may be of interest. I also let people in on some of the things going on in my life outside my blogging. But don't worry, I never tweet more than once or twice a day, and many days I don't tweet at all, so you want be flooded with tweets if you start following me.
Thanks for reading the Sustainable Future blog!
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