In my line of thinking, there are several big problems with the health care system. The problems start with the fact that there is more than one train of thought about what is best for the body when problems arise. For example, allopathic medicine uses drugs to suppress symptoms. Alternative medicine uses dietary supplements to deal with ailments and disease. There is very little respect in the allopathic world for alternative medicine. The two worlds don't get along because the allopathic world feels, or wants to think, that the alternative world has nothing to offer. The problem may involve more than just lack of respect. From where I stand, the pharmaceutical companies and the FDA feel that alternative medicine threatens the sale of drugs. If that were not the case they wouldn't, among other indiscretions, spend so much time doing and honoring research that debunks dietary supplements as ineffective and worthless where helping the body with ailments or disease is concerned."
Lately we are hearing a lot about vitamin and mineral research studies showing that these supplements do nothing to help the health of the body. Most studies involve a single nutrient. The problem with this is that no single nutrient works alone in the body, rather nutrients work with each other. For example, vitamin C and calcium are responsible for cell wall integrity. Together they strengthen the cell wall thus denying viruses and bacteria access to the cell. However, if either nutrient is deficient cell wall integrity is compromised. Taking that a step further let's say a study is concerned with the impact of pantothenic acid on weak adrenal glands. If the body is deficient in B-6 and vitamin C, which is usually the case with adrenal exhaustion, the pantothenic acid isn't going to have much effect. However, using these three nutrients in combination in this case will bring exhausted adrenal glands back to normal.
The point is that when supplement research projects don't look at, or take into consideration, all the nutrient interactions, needs and deficiencies specific to those areas of the body affected by the particular ailment or disease in question, the results of the study will be skewed. That gives alternative medicine a bad name and that name is 'It doesn't work'. I can and would prove that name to be wrong, and I look forward to the opportunity to do just that.
I would like to think that I live in a "free" society where health is a birthright that every citizen is allowed to pursue "HEALTH" through natural, time honored forms of healing, through the drugs adopted by allopathic medicine, or by combining dietary supplements and drugs if they so desire. However, that perfect world is not yet a reality in this great country. I speak of this from personal experience. I have observed the actions of the FDA where cancer cures that have utilized dietary supplements are concerned. These actions include the businesses manufacturing such supplements being forced out of business by the FDA. Mind you, this happened not because they were not following good manufacturing practices, but because people using their products were curing themselves of cancer, including cancers that were considered inoperable and incurable. I am not alone here, many people in this country have stories to tell that mirror my experience. When a government institution initiates action against companies that manufacture dietary supplements that threaten the bottom line of the pharmaceutical companies I am left with no choice but to know that the institution that is supposed to protect my health freedom is actually my adversary.
Yet another part of the problem in the health care picture is that health care, from procedures to drugs to insurance, costs too much. People without insurance are often left with the reality of having to go to emergency rooms when problems arise. Those trips are much more costly than a visit to a doctor. Also, as a result of insurance companies being involved in the stock market and thus having investors needs to meet, these companies end up dictating to doctors about what they can and cannot do where patients needs are concerned. Insurance companies being able to determine who gets health care and what kind and how much care they get bodes only to the reality that money is more important to these companies than their concerns about the health of an individual.
Then there is the mind/matter connection to health. While those in the metaphysical world have long known of the link between mind and matter, the new sciences of quantum physics are now revolutionizing our understanding of the specific link between mind and matter. To quote Dr. Bruce Lipton, "The old vision was that genes turn them "On and Off" . But current data reveals that there is no such thing as an on/off function for a gene because genes are blueprints (plans) to make proteins, which are the building blocks that give shape to the structure. The significance of this shift in belief is vast in that the original view led to the notion that we are victims of our biology. Whereas the ‘new’ sciences show that we are actually masters of our biology."
The following information is from Dr. Lipton's website: "The old vision was formulated by Francis Crick, who together with James Watson deciphered the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. Based on experiments that were taken out of context but supported what he and Watson were thinking, Crick became completely enamored with the belief that DNA controls life. Crick came up with what is referred to in literature as the ‘central dogma’, the belief that DNA rules.
The crucial thing here is that this was only a hypothesis. There was never any scientific validation for it yet we all bought it because a belief already existed that this would be the answer to what controls life so when the data looked like it would fit it was simply assumed that this was right. (Lipton, who taught Cell Biology at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine was one of thousands of lecturers who taught the theory.)" Detailed information on this subject can be found at http://www.brucelipton.com/
The science that allows us to embrace these mind/matter revelations is not being promoted by the general media. Such information flies in the face of allopathic medicine and its use of drugs because it makes the mind/matter connection a matter of personal responsibility, which will inevitably change how we both view and treat ailments and disease. However, until we embrace the mind/matter connection as the true cause of ailments and disease, and until we accept and embrace both allopathic and alternative medicine as equal players in the wellness process, thereby enabling us to be able to utilize both drugs and dietary supplements as valid tools in the cause of wellness, any health care plan we come up with will be compromised.
The first step in changing the direction we have gone since allopathic medicine came on the scene in the early part of the 20th century is to allow alternative medicine the freedom that allopathic medicine enjoys. In 1994 there were 20 million Americans using dietary supplements. Today half the population, approximately 150 million people, are using dietary supplements. If supplements didn't work the trend toward supplements and alternative medicine wouldn't be growing, but they do and it is. Actually the practice of alternative medicine has risen dramatically in recent years. It is only the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies that want to suppress these health options, especially now that so many people are using supplements. For example, it is okay for a drug company to state what a drug does, but the FDA doesn't allow dietary supplements to state on the label what they do, though between word of mouth and the internet this information is getting out into the world. So, if a person has done their homework, or finds a good naturopathic physician, they are doing so because they know that using dietary supplements can be effective in treating many types of problems.
Most disturbing is the ongoing assault by the FDA to get dietary supplements classified as drugs, which would effectively remove them from store shelves thereby forcing all of us to go to the doctor to get a prescription in order to be able to purchase them. That is not health freedom. The attack on dietary supplements by the FDA began in earnest in 1994. That attempt ended with the DSHEA (Dietary Health and Education supplement Act) law that made supplements legal. In 2007 the FDA again began moving to reclassify virtually all vitamins, supplements, herbs and even vegetable juices as FDA-regulated drugs. The document is called Docket No. 2006D-0480...Draft Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration. This information can be found at the following website: http://www.fda.gov/CBER/gdlns/altmed.pdf
My health is my responsibility. The choices I make in dealing with my health are my responsibility. With every bite of food I put in my mouth, with every word I speak and thought that I think I am making choices about the health of my body. If I have made poor choices where my food, words and thoughts are concerned, the ailment or disease outcome created by those poor choices is my responsibility. I want the ability to make choices about how to heal the physical manifestation of my indiscretions based on all the options, and I want all the options to be available. Dietary supplements contain nutrients, just like food. They are not drugs, nor should they be. For the thoughts of We The People concerning Docket No. 2006D-0480 go to http://www.nationalhealthfreedom.org/nhfa/AlertFDA051507.htm
That the FDA is willing to take the steps outlined in Docket No. 2006D-0480 is very disturbing. When one considers that many physical, mental and emotional conditions respond to dietary supplements, which are far cheaper than the drugs used to treat such conditions, one must ask why a government agency would not want their citizens to benefit from cheaper, yet efficient health care. Drugs have their place, but so do supplements. In this day and age why would we not want to lower the cost of health care without giving up efficient, effective treatments? Why? Because the health of the individual IS NOT paramount. What IS paramount is the financial health of insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Denying citizens the use of dietary supplements will raise the cost of health care. Is that the direction we really want to go?
Many of us using dietary supplements do not want to use drugs. Some of us feel that the side effects are more invasive than the condition being treated. Others of us use both drugs and supplements, and wish to continue to be able to do so. What do the 150 million of us using dietary supplements do if the FDA manages to get this law passed, a law that feels like a betrayal that leans heavily toward communism? We will go to a doctor and get prescriptions for vitamins and minerals that will cost us a dollar a pill for diluted amounts of whatever vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids, etc. that we want, provided that is, that the FDA will allow them to be manufactured. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what that would do to the cost of health care.
I sincerely believe that the Obama-Biden administration would reverse this trend by the FDA of defying health options that lie outside the realm of the pharmaceutical drug companies. . I am tired of the "System" not having the courage to, among other things, right the injustice in our health care system. Nor have they had the wisdom to call the government agency which oversees that system to full accountability. President Obama says he is ready to institute change? (REALLY!) I truly hope that his administration will choose to deal forcefully with this situation because it is this allopathic/pharmaceutical/alternative conflict that threatens to keep health care in this country costly, ineffective, inefficient and not in the best interest of the health of the consumer. If this situation is not righted we will not have health freedom, instead we will have companies continuing to make money off peoples misery.
If the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies have their way we, as a society, will not embrace the truth of illness and disease. Yet on a deep, in some cases subconscious level, we all know that 'physician heal thyself' is the truth of the matter. No matter the path we take drug or supplement wise to assist either our healing process or the maintenance of our daily wellness, it is an experience of personal responsibility. In either case the bottom line is that we want the ability to make the choice, based on the ALL of options, as to how we get there.
There is one issue where health care is concerned that lends itself to far more than discussions about drugs, supplements, wellness, ailments or disease. Because a government agency is attempting to manipulate our ability to pursue all health options in lieu of creating monopolies for the drug companies, that agency threatens our freedom. I am not anti-drug. I am, however, totally opposed to the suppression and control of forms of healing that are not drug related by an agency that is supposed to have my best interests at heart. I am also opposed to a national health care plan that follows their lead by subscribing to the notion that drugs are the only answer to physical, mental and emotional problems, ailments and disease. Finally, I do not believe that we can limit health freedom and at the same time expect to have a national health care plan that is not financially compromised by such a limitation."Stand Up For "Health's Sake~ YOUR OWN!" Follow me on twitter ~ @spiritdance33
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