The Four Legged Stool

A few weeks ago I met a really nice guy week battling the debilitating after effects of some medication he was prescribed. As a result I was lying in bed thinking about the state of our “health care” system that is leaving so many people incapacitated.
One of the lessons I have been taught is that it is really effective to determine what the product is that you are going for in any situation. It is also a good way to evaluate other persons or groups. What is their product?
For instance their are two possible products that could be obtained by a primary health care practitioner.
The first and more optimum product of a health care professional is a person returned to full health, symptom free. If you have a health care provider who is one of those, cherish them and broadly promote them! They deserve it and your family and friends do too!
The second, and more common product, is a person whose disease state is “managed or under control”, usually with medication.
One problem with this disease management scenario is that because each drug has an average of 75 side-effects, one of which is death, most people end up on three or more medications, many of them to combat the symptoms of earlier prescribed drugs.
The result of this is a monthly or quarterly recurring income for the prescribing pill pusher and drug company and a life of paying and pill popping and degenerating health for the patient.
I looked over this scene and concluded it was like a four legged stool that would fall over if one leg was removed.
The Four Legs
1. The uneducated, misinformed general public who are only after a “quick fix” to their symptoms, unaware that those symptoms are merely a manifestion of an underlying cause. A cause that unless addressed, will result in more symptoms.
2. Those medicos only after a quick buck, sometimes unaware that they should, sometimes unaware of how to educate the public to change their diet and lifestyle choices to reverse the underlying cause of their symptoms.
3. The profit driven pharmaceutical companies who are marketing their drugs to doctors, the public, the government and government agencies. These companies are not reward for cures, only for perpetual customers.
4. The legislative and administrative arms of the government. The former are supposed to legislate for the best interests of the public but are heavily lobbied with incomplete and false information and campaign funded by the drug companies so establish laws and policies that benefit those drug companies.
The solution is to do what we can to kick one or more legs out from underneath this stool! This will not happen overnight and neither you not I can do it alone. But there are already plenty of people doing something about it and we can do a lot worse than forward their messages.
Step one is to do the best for yourself with regards to diet and lifestyle and thereby set a good example to your family and friends and others you meet.
Step two is to tell those who will listen what you are doing and why you are doing it. Do what you can to forward solutions on your comm lines. If a friend raves about a good naturopath, pass it on! If you read a good article on Facebook, click the Like and Share buttons. If you get a newsletter from some else or me that resonates with you, forward it.
Step three is to ask your GP or whomever you need to consult for your health, “What is our product here, what are we trying to accomplish?” If they are of the “Nothing can be cured” camp, don’t walk, run for the door and ask your friends who they know who had the same condition as you who was returned to health and find the health care practitioner who they consulted.
Step four is to continue to educate yourself on those things that work and don’t to improve your health and then implement what you learn!
This article did not start as a plug for my book but I would be remiss if I did not point out that you can seriously shortcut your learning curve by starting with it: www.howtolivethehealthiestlife.com
There are many more things that can be done to kick a leg out from under that stool but if you complete those four steps above you will know more than most and you will know what you need to do further.