The Medical Mindset- Inefficient to Health and Wellness? YOU DECIDE!

    I am writing this concerning Michael Moore's documentary film "Sicko." I realize this comes a bit late, but having just seen the documentary, I would like to give you my thoughts and feelings.  I understand that the health insurance industry may be disappointed in the message this film leaves with the general public.I doubt, though, that the industry's disappointment is greater than the impression of disappointment left with the public about the health insurance industry.

   

    I am also sure that the health insurance industry is committed to providing Americans with access to the best quality health-care that is available, and they likely work to stay up with new advances in health information.  However, therein lies the problem.  For example, are you aware that of the millions people now populating our great nation some 50 million-plus, of us are now using dietary supplements?  That is up from 20 million in 1994 when Congress passed DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act) a law to protect dietary supplements. Yet health insurers choose to follow the pharmaceutical model as the way to health and wellness.

   

    It seems that many people in the professional field of medicine would like to feel that it has taken a generation of poor nutrition and exercise to get obesity and related health issues and their subsequent costs to their current levels. What I see is that the system has learned to mask symptoms with drugs rather than cure the problem. It is this thought process that has misled public thinking and therefore has lead the public to taking inappropriate action where nutrition and exercise are concerned.  This medical mindset is inefficient to health and wellness. Consequently what the system has been both professing and pushing as answers to health and wellness hasn't been working, and thus we are now paying the toll.

   

    Moore's film puts great focus on the profit incentives where the health insurance business is concerned. Yet if the concern of the health insurance business is truly the health and wellness of Americans, with money being a secondary issue, why does the commitment to innovation that reflects the ever-changing health-care landscape and the needs of the consumer continue to ignore alternative and complementary medicine?  Why does the health insurance business continue to ignore a facet of health and wellness that half the country is utilizing?

   

    Insurers choose to stay focused on emerging medical trends and treatment options from the allopathic world and ignore other options. It is my understanding that to further the use of evidenced-based medicine, BCBS (Blue Cross Blue Shield) has called upon Congress to establish an independent, payer-funded institute that will study the comparative effectiveness of new and existing medical treatments and procedures.  When do insurance companies plan on incorporating dietary supplements and alternative medicine under the category of evidence-based medicine?

   

    It is my experience of  years of studying health and wellness that incorporating these mediums is not welcomed by the FDA or the pharmaceutical companies.  The FDA and the pharmaceutical companies go out of their way to keep dietary supplements out of a positive limelight and out of the public eye.  I know that some people don’t want to believe that such things happen but I happen to know this from personal experience.

   With slight modifications in the nutrients consumed I believe it is possible to be successful in "Knocking Out" such ailments as,Epstein-Barr virus, Fibromyalgia, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and a host of other so called "Incurable Diseases"-  I have had the experience of personal observation with many of  these ailments and diseases.  But I have to say that this is just the tip of the iceberg in what can be accomplished, and that I am just one of many, many people in this country aware of nutritional tools that are effective in providing the immune system with a path to wellness.

   

    There is yet again a push for national health insurance, and that is not a bad thing as long as it doesn’t further entrench a failed allopathic medical system to the exclusion of alternative medicine. One thing I’ve noticed about our society over the years is that those people who take drugs and use little or no dietary supplements,often times(not always!) pay little or no attention to either nutrition or exercise.  Those people using only dietary supplements, or using pharmaceutical drugs combined with dietary supplements, are more prone to pay attention to both dietary nutrition and exercise. Whether considering the coverage and delivery of health care, or when considering the truly relevant issue of improving our health and wellness, the focus needs to be on diversification because the old system standard has failed us.

   

    The FDA and the pharmaceutical industry both want to say that their vision of health and wellness have to do with curing people of ailments and disease.  The odd thing is that the way it comes across through television commercials is that if you have a problem then there is a pill you can take the rest of your life to keep the problem under control.  Now we are hearing that since the medical world can’t cure cancer, cancer is something that people can SOMETIMES learn to live with-again a lifetime of pill taking. Both those scenarios translate as money in the bank to the big pharmaceutical companies and to the health insurance providers.  Just one example would be to imagine spending $75,000 for a bypass operation versus $200 for two weeks of nutrients that clear the arteries out without surgery. Insurance companies should have the compassion to embrace that, wouldn't you think?

   

    If health insurance companies are truly sincere about pursuing efforts to provide Americans with the health-care services and information they need to lead full, healthy lives then might I suggest that they embrace the potential of dietary supplements.  They might consider taking the step of investing in research with the people in this great country who have been pushing the envelope where resisting suppression from the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies is concerned.  The tendency now of health insurers is to stay focused on emerging medical trends and treatment options from the allopathic world and ignore other options. It is my understanding that to further the use of evidenced-based medicine, BCBS has called upon Congress to establish an independent, payer-funded institute that will study the comparative effectiveness of new and existing medical treatments and procedures.  When are insurance companies going to embrace the dietary supplements of alternative medicine as evidenced-based medicine?
   

  As it now stands people have to hunt and peck for answers to health, ailments and disease through the use of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients in the form of dietary supplements because the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies have worked to keep that information fragmented.  For example, they can say that a drug can cure, but if I say a group of dietary supplements can cure they can take legal action against me.  A person would have to be incoherent to not realize that this inequality isn’t based on the fact that drug companies have millions, even billions, of dollars to lose by allowing such information to be made public.  Having said that I do believe that there is some integrity in the health insurance system.  I also believe, however, that the health insurance system needs to realize that the current medical model has severe shortcomings, and that diversification will benefit the American people.

         The good thing about the movie “Sicko” is that it raises a lot of valuable questions about our failed medical system; the bad thing about it is that it proposes universal health coverage for a failed system, without recognizing that it IS a failed system!  While I don’t condone universal health coverage I certainly am a proponent of the health insurance companies taking steps to improve the system.  The first simple step is to reimburse their members that choose to utilize alternative medicine.  Secondly, I have always felt that drugs and dietary supplements, if put on an equally respected basis, could effectively work together.  However, until unbiased research is done dietary supplements have little chance of attaining that status.  If health insurance companies were to take the lead in promoting and financing research into proven methods of alternative medicine then dietary supplements could come to the forefront.  The beneficiaries of the information about health and wellness that would surface from such activity would be "We The People"
In closing, I would like to thank those who inspire me on this journey to wellness, Adelle Davis,author of many books on health and wellness,implementing vitamins and minerals. Louise Hay,who not only taught me the mental/emotional connection in health and wellness, but also the word, "Disease" (To quote her, "Dis~ Ease") And last but not least,the one who inspired me THE most, Dr.Francis J.Trapani, the man who literally PUT me on the road to wellness, to you, Dr."T"- I am forever grateful.

J.A.Michaels~ Follow me on twitter~ @spiritdance33