Here we are…the first real blog post, and my goodness is this an important issue. I’ll discuss something more fundamental than what you might expect will be posted under this title.
How you define “Health Care”? If health is optimal functioning of the body, how does standard “traditional” medical care even fit? As I often say, for some the last sentence could be like someone telling you for the first time 500 years ago that the earth IS, indeed, round! All this, when most everyone around you still wholly believes that the earth must be flat!
So, what is health (care)?
The WHO (World Health Organization) defines health as “A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Many of us have an absence of the disease process. Think about all the children and young adults that rarely if ever have a need for the medical doctor. So, what happens at the annual check-up? Other than preventative screenings, if you have no signs or symptoms of a disease or health “problem” there is nothing that can be done for you.
What if we were able to deal with health problems before they ever surfaced by optimizing our health? THAT is the very intention of chiropractic health care philosophy. SURE, it is an unfortunate circumstance that the average new patient has been through years of needless suffering and plenty of symptom-based failures.
Yes, no one is perfectly healthy. But how many go in for a “minor” problem only to find out that it has to get worse before anything can be done…what sense does that make? Your health must get a lot worse than it currently is for the pharmacy or the surgeon to do something. Does this sound like health care to you? NO! It is disease management care. You go into the medical doctor when you are sick and ailing.
YES, we need to major health care reform in this country! Why not start by eliminating the expensive and symptom-chasing chronic disease management that accounts for over 90% of our system? Sure, we need emergency measures. Sure, some have had unfortunate injuries or development issues that require medical management, but this is less than 10%.
It all goes back to a simple concept: “It’s a lot easier to keep yourself well than to get your health back once you lose it!”