Healthcare or Wellness?
Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 09:56AM 
I orginally created this post while on a filght to San Dego, California on October 5th in route after the death of my father. In a post on my SupremeUltimate blog I am not feeling sadness, but do feel a sort of strangeness when I say the words
"my father died". The following post has been on my mind for many many years and since my father's passng I have felt more compelled than ever to write about it.
While flying to San Diego to prepare to bury my father, who died yesterday mornng, more than likely from just plane ole, old age since he lived to the ripe age of 81. His death got me to thinking about the healthcare plans being touted by each presidential candidate and universal healtcare in general. I know there are millions of people living in the so called greatest country in the world without access to adequate healthcare. But, is healthcare alone the answer?
In our world, here in the U.S., adequate healthcare seems to be the answer to all the people's woes, at least if you listen to Obama/Biden or McCain/Palin. In the United States there are hundreds of thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS and many many more living with diabetes, high blood pressure, cardio pulmonary disease or some other illness that has become common place in our society today. Yet, it seems the clamoring for healthcare is really a coded effort to fatten the coffers of the pharmaceutical companies and managed healthcare.
As I mentioned earlier I am on a flight as I write this to go and bury my father. Approximately 19 years ago my father was preparing to retire from his job with the federal government. He and my mother decided that they should go and get physical exams. It was almost like they felt they were reaching their latter years and wanted to get detailed physical exams with blood draws and various screenings, which makes good sense. After about a two to three hour stay with their primary physician they returned home, both with prescribtions for high blood pressure medications. My mother had one particular medication and my father had another that was a heart medication being used to control his blood pressure.
Now, as I look back, I remember how the doctor they both love and trust so much had prescribed them medication without suggesting they change their diet, start an exercise program or increase their water intake then set up an appointment at a later time to recheck their blood pressure. In fact both my parents were not physically active at the time of the initial physical exam and could have benefitted from an exercise program and diet change. Never the less, the medications were prescribed, filled, and taken by each one of my parents religiously. However, I do consider the fact that my parents are of the generation that looks up to doctors almost as if doctors have been deified after residency, whch explains the religious like faith in which they took their medications.
Within an eighteen month period they both were diagnosed with diabetes and prescribed more medication, which they both took religiously without question. Still no exercise program was advised by the doctor they love and trust and still no advice to change their diet. I have been told by friends that live with diabetes that they must eat a certain way and avoid certiain drinks and sugars and begin an exercise program, but curiously not so with my parents. They kept eating the same way they did before their diagnosis and only began to walk on a daily basis of their own volition. This prescribing of medication without diet change and exercise was curious to me, I questioned my parents on it, but they protested and said their doctor didn't tell them they had to change their eating habits nor exercise, so they did nothing differently than before their diagnosis.
In October of 1997, my father thought he was suffering with a cold that persisted for some time. He put off going to his physician until he felt the cold was becomng the flu. By the end of the year he found it was not a cold or the flu and was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure, often called Chronc Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD ) today. He was prescribed a seres of medications, his blood pressure medication was changed, and his diabetes medication was increased. In the meantime my mother developed asthma and was prescribed Prednisone, an inhaler, a breathing machine and an increase in her dosage of the diabetes meds she was taking. Still no change in diet suggested nor an exercise program, my mother was told by her doctor that he wanted her to move around a little more and no advice concerning exercise was given to my father.
This is the American healthcare system. My father wa a 20 year veteran of the U.S. Navy, worked another 27 years for the federal government before he finally retired. Once he retired he never worked another day in his life (thanks to his excellent savings and investment choices), not even to break bordem, he preferred the soaps, gardening, visiting his friends and his duties as a Baptist church deacon to stave off any possibility of bordem. Thus, his health benefits were more than adequate, but considered excellent by today's standards.
So, as Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin battle for our votes while calling for better healthcare, I wonder what that really is. Is it a system of doling out medications as I witness with my parents? My mother is still under this same physician's care. Do the candidates really have our interest at heart or managed healthcare and pharmaceutical companies? We know that physicians are given incentives to push a certain drug or recommend a certain procedure when a patient has adequately covered by a health insurance provider. Is this what each campaign is pushing when they push their healthcare agendas?
What I hear when they speak of healthcare is more money for managed care and pharmaceutical companies. I hear nothing of a plan such as President John F. Kennedy's Presidency Project on Physical Ftness during the 1960's. There seems to be no emphasis on wellness or prevention by either campaign, just a call for adequate healthcare. Funny the call is for just adequate healthcare rather than good, great or excellent healthcare. Its too bad many will live and die such as my father, believing that whatever the doctor says is the gospel and is looking out for their good health, when it may very well be the doctor is looking out for her or his own financial health.
Reader Comments (8)
Great post!
I think that there are several overlapping things going on with this issue:
(1)<strong>Cultural concepts of medicine.</strong> The Western concept of medicine is really into gadgets/mechanical technology: the latest machine, the latest surgical procedure, the latest artifical drugs, etc. The Western concept also only really thinks only in terms of interventions <strong>at the point of crisis</strong> such as during the heart attack, during the stroke, etc. Western-style medicine is really effective & appropriate for these sorts of crises as well as physical trauma caused by accidents, etc. Western medicine also tends to stress "quick fixes" like surgery, etc.
Traditional Eastern medical systems (Ayurvedic, Tibetan, Chinese, etc.) are more likely to emphasize prevention, and "slow medicine" (including dietary & exercise regimens) that build up the body's natural defenses to help prevent the development of diabetes, cancer, etc.
(2)<strong>Individual doctors' quirks.</strong> There are a lot of doctors who are not interested in learning about nutrition, etc. There are also a lot of doctors who simply don't keep up with the latest research about the role of nutrition and exercise in fighting disease.
The doctor/researcher who wrote the book titled "Anticancer: A New Way of Life" found this out for himself when talking to his own oncologist about what he could do to prevent a relapse of his brain cancer. His doctor didn't have any suggestions for him; so he gathered up all the latest research on his own.
Peace, blessings and solidarity.
Thank you Evon, Isn't it a shame that they are only calling for "adequate" healthcare!
Khadija, Thanks for coming by. You are absolutely correct. Western medicine has been come a "lets fix it" institution. There is a very enlightened physician, Dr. Jewel Pookrum that informs us of medical schools and the role they take in teaching incoming Doctors how to deal with the insurance agencies and how to move patients in and out quickly, not about looking at each patient as an individual human being with unique needs. I would recommend anyone to read her work. She emphasizes uterine wellness for women and has healed many women of cancer without surgery, including herself.
First, my prayers to you, your mom, and your family.
Second, I wonder if the candidates know what "excellent" healthcare is or if they, too, believe like so many Americans in the Western way of healthcare. In "the greatest country in the world" we are so far behind in promoting wellness and prevention. You would think that health insurance companies would want to save money and preventative medicine saves money.
I've had one of the most emotionally draining conversations with my mom who I think has stage one heart disease (she isn't forthcoming with her diagnosis because she is afraid). Her doctor recommended angioplasty and until yesterday she flat out refused. I have been stressing that in her case she needs to balance both allopathic and naturopathic medicine until her body is back in balance. She has done neither. In talking with her I use myself as an example because she knows my struggle and my journey.
This is such an excellent post; so many of us need to be educated about our choices and motivated to act upon the knowledge we have.
Its imperative that she understand (and I know this is a very large gulf you would have to cross to get to her) that her heart condition could be taken as a warning of any other possible devistating illnesses. I pray you can get the message across to her. I pray for you, your mom and the families enlightenment and overstanding.
Guidance and Salutations!
Next, let me say I think your post is right on. Do I think Americans have the right to free healthcare? Yes. But is the current healthcare system broken - you betcha.
I have seen firsthand the benefits of a few changes in diet and just a bit of walking can have on weight and blood pressure - without drugs.
Any physician worth their weight, should explain the benefits of a healthcare regimen that includes changes in diet and exercise. However, because or current system is profit driven rather than patient or health driven, their way gets clouded by greed.
They've got to satisfy the pharmaceutical reps, the stockholders, the HMO's and their own greedy impulses.
When our health and well being is managed by people who's pockets are affected, you can see how basically broken and corrupted the system is.