My Year (2010) in Quotes

As I speak with patients, sometimes I am surprised what comes out of my mouth. The following are what I believe to be original quotes:

Life is an Education: So Live and Learn, and Learn to Live

To become the person you want to be, you first have to know the person you are.

The fountain of youth is health.

If you don’t put your health first, at some point everything else will be second.

Your life is a work in progress. If you are willing to do the work, you will see the progress.

Health is a lifetime, lifestyle commitment.

If you are not in control of your health, someone else is.

Intuition is hardwired.

How can we expect to have a healthy planet, when we don’t understand how to create health within ourselves?

How can we expect responsible corporations and government, when we ourselves are irresponsible?

How can we expect honesty from others, when we are dishonest with ourselves?

How can we have respect for a higher power, when we so disrespect the miraculous gifts we have been given in our health, our life, and our world?

The Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

My Platinum Rule: Take personal responsibility in all aspects of your life.

No Stone Left Unturned

No Stone Left Unturned

One of the biggest indicators of how much we need health care reform is the extent and costs of the battle that the special interests of the medical-pharmaceutical-industrial complex are waging to kill it.

Theirs’ is a well financed, coordinated, no-holds-barred war, leaving no stone un-turned in their efforts to influence the minds, opinions and votes of politicians and the public.

The extent to which they will go, and the strategies which they employ, know no bounds and exceed the imagination of a trusting, misinformed and distracted public.

Case in point:

Health Insurers Caught Paying Facebook Gamers Virtual Currency To Oppose Reform Bill

(click the above link and then their link to gethealthreformright.org)

As the article says: in a process called ‘astro-turfing,’ or in this instance more appropriately called ‘virtual astro-turfing’, corporations like the insurance industry, or organizations like ‘think-tanks,’ etc., create FAKE (virtual) grassroots movements by paying people to act like political supporters. In this case, it isn’t even real money. It is ‘virtual currency!’

Could it get any more insidious or cynical? If this doesn’t exemplify the extent and depths to which they will go…and doesn’t frighten you…I don’t know what will. What else are they doing below the radar of the public at large?

And, could the public knee-jerk response to virtual crumbs (for an inane computer game, of all things) in exchange for their vote (contrary to their own best interests) be any more pathetic?

If you are not ACTIVELY working to enact health care reform (or reform in other major areas: financial, environmental, etc), you should be.

Once again, it reminds me of Hillel’s aphorism: (on personal responsibility)

IF NOT ME, THEN WHO?

IF NOT NOW, THEN WHEN?

Sow the seeds of civil disobedience now!

Health Economics Part 3

Budgeting for Health

There is no magic bullet, no miracle drug, no life-enhancing vitamin, no surgery or ‘as seen on tv’ before and after diet plan or exercise equipment that will make you healthy!

Get over it and take personal responsibility for your health.

Regaining and then maintaining health requires a commitment of your time, consistency of effort, and an investment of money. All are required.

Exercise can be free, or you can join a gym. In either case, it takes time and consistent effort. Buying local produce, shopping and preparing better foods requires money, effort and time.

There is no greater investment, or return on your investment, than your health.

I have outlined some of the major areas where you will have to invest your time, effort and money to improve and maximize your health.

Gym/health club memberships, yoga class or dancing lessons, etc.
Home workout equipment: floor mat, gym balls, free weights, treadmill, elliptical, etc.
Healthy foods: (more towards locally grown and organic, if possible)
fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, meats, fish, poultry
Essential daily supplements: Omega-3 fish oil, probiotics, vitamin D, B-complex:
Good supportive bed and pillow
Good shoes/sneakers, with custom orthotics
Good ergonomic computer desk-chair-keyboard and mouse, monitor risers, foot-rests, arm rests
Chiropractic adjustments and health coaching(1-2 times/month)
Massage
Occasional weekend get-aways, nights out, etc.
Ongoing education: classes, dvd’s, books, meditation/guided imagery cds, etc.

When you budget for, and invest in your health, the costs will be somewhat offset by eliminating wasteful spending on disease producing habits, by seriously limiting or cutting back on:

Processed foods and baked goods
Fast foods and snacks
Eating out as often
Sodas and juices
Cigarettes
Alcohol

In addition, you may be eligible for:

Insurance policy premium discounts for healthy people.
Refunds on gym memberships.
Discounted rates on life insurance policies.

The greatest $aving$ will come from not getting sick or developing serious diseases. Saving untold thousands, or even tens and hundreds of thousand of dollars in:

Doctor visits: deductibles and co-pays
Surgeries, diagnostic procedures, emergency transport and hospital stay co-pays.
Co-pays and/or percentages of costs for prescribed medications and medical devices
Cash outlays for over the counter medications
Risk rating fees tacked on to insurance costs for high risk/poor health
Lost time from work due to illness
Losing your job due to illness
Lost opportunities due to illness and untold wasted and lost time pursuing care.
Break-up of families due to emotional, financial and physical stressors associated with repeated or major illnesses.

If you think you don’t have the time, don’t want to make the effort and can’t afford to spend the money it takes to get and stay healthy, what makes you think you will have the time, will be able to make the effort, and will have the vast sums of money it costs to be sick?

On Personal Responsibility

I recently read, A Charter for Compassion, on David Elpern’s, MD wonderful blog, Cell 2 Soul.

“The Charter seeks to remind the world that while all faiths are not the same, they all share the core principle of compassion and the Golden Rule.”

Based on my life experiences and interactions, I believe in a rule that supersedes The Golden Rule.

I call it The Platinum Rule:
Personal Responsibility in ALL Aspects of Your Life.

Personal responsibility implies holding ourselves to high standards and accountability to ourselves and to others.

It is only when one has assumed personal responsibility for their own life, that they can fully comprehend and apply The Golden Rule.

I see personal responsibility as the fundamental prerequisite for personal health and wellbeing, essential for successful family, personal and business relationships and the starting point for reclaiming and saving our planet.

The essence of personal responsibility is most beautifully expressed by Hillel’s famous aphorism:

If not me, then who? If not now, then when?

The Rectifcation of Names

Getting the Words Right : or, "Through the Looking Glass"

As acclaimed author Michael Pollan recently wrote, "the corruption of society begins with the corruption of words. Therefore, any attempt to fix what is wrong in the world had best start with the rectification of names."

Clearly, the corruption of language to serve ulterior motives is as old as communication itself. However, its impact has been greatly magnified by the speed and reach of modern communication technologies. Lacking clear definitions of our own we accept as truth those conveyed to us by sources that, all too often, do not have our best interests in mind.

Let's look at the biomedical pharmaceutical-based model of "health."

Health Care:

The entire focus of medical training is the study and treatment of disease and pathology. Doctors do not study health or what maintains it. They do not promote health or prevent disease. You only 'go' when you are sick and care kicks in with disease diagnosis, the end stage of a process.

What's healthy about that?

Wouldn't it be more accurate to call it disease care?

Health Screen:

A systems check looking for observable signs of disease progression, done repeatedly over time until something is found to diagnose and treat.

Again, what's healthy about that?
Wouldn't it be more accurate to call it a disease screen?

Health Insurance:

It only pays if you are diagnosed with illness. Except for token gym memberships and disease screens, most do not cover wellness care or anything that maintains and promotes health.

Wouldn't it be more accurate to call it:

catastrophic homeowner's insurance for the body?

Health Care Crisis:

The crisis, we are told, is that too many of us do not have health insurance and that costs are skyrocketing. All true. However, the crisis is NOT that we don't have insurance. The real crisis is that so many of us are so sick.

Wouldn't it be more accurate to call it a disease crisis?

And, wouldn't the real fix be promoting health?

Interestingly, insurers now refer to doctors as providers, patients as consumers and health care as managed care. Sounds harsh? Money oriented. Perhaps, the 'rectification of names' has begun!

The medical model has a real and very beneficial role in crisis and emergency care and management and the alleviation of catastrophic symptoms. All, after-the-fact infection or trauma induced or end-process disease care.

However, this model of waiting for, and then treating, the symptoms of disease has failed any way you look at it. It has failed in terms of the the continued skyrocketing rates of disease and mortality, the inefficacy of medical care in treating them, and the economic costs associated with them.

Real change will come when there is a shift in our collective consciousness away from the passive pill-popping and surgical interventions of the disease-care paradigm to the daily personal responsibility of the health and wellness-care paradigm.

It is not as if we do not know what health is or how to achieve and maintain it.

You do not need to be sick to have a healthy intervention.

Eating a whole foods, largely plant-based diet, exercising daily and having a positive outlook on life not only create health, they can reverse and/or ameliorate disease processes and symptoms.

Health is way more than the avoidance or absence of disease and the removal of symptoms.

Health is about living a full, active and happy life. It comes from personal awareness, personal responsibility and a commitment to a healthy lifestyle.

Health throughout your life is not only possible, it is your birthright!

As Buddha said:

"We are each the architects of our own health or disease."

What are you going to do today, and every day, to maintain and improve your health?