If there is one thing that is seriously disappointing about the past 20+ months (and the list is long!), it is the reinforced idea that health comes from the outside-in. We’ve been on a path for the past 100 years, led by the current healthcare system and model, and look where we are at. We’re overweight, out of shape, terribly sick, and lost.
We know more about the human body that ever before. We have broken down the organs, tissues, and cells to the molecule. We understand minute pathways, chemical interactions, and cellular function in way that past researchers could have only dreamed of. We have even deconstructed the human genome, a feat so amazing that many thought it could never be done.
Of course, this greater knowledge and understanding of the human body and how it works has led to breakthroughs, advances, and great achievements in medical care. There are life-saving procedures and life-enhancing therapies available today because of what we now know. Therefore, I am all for scientific advancement, research, and technological advancement. I would be silly to dismiss all the good we have been able to do.
However, the fact remains that our society is sicker, fatter, less happy, more stressed, and more confused than ever before in history. We now know that research can’t be trusted, profit is often put before patient well-being, and the overall goal of our current healthcare system is to manage illness, not cure it.
Somewhere along the line, we started to believe that we were smarter than mother nature…that we could outsmart our bodies…that we could do it better than it is done naturally. We discover a specific pathway within the body (such as how the liver produces cholesterol), figure out how we can introduce a chemical into the body to block or alter that pathway (such as statin drugs used to lower cholesterol), only to find out that the chemical doesn’t just affect that single pathway (how could it?), which leads to adverse effects causing other health-related issues (such as muscle and joint pain associated with the statin drug).
Many of these adverse effects show up much later. The medical response to that is a very predictable one… take another pill to offset that adverse effect. Which seems to work, until that pill causes more adverse effects, which leads to more pills. And here we are, with most adults (and now a scary number of children) relying on a handful of pills each day just to get through the day.
The solution will never come in the form of a pill, a shot, a lotion, or a potion. Your body cries out by giving you symptoms, alerting you to underlying problems. Treating the symptom is futile, you must address the cause. Health is not something that happens to you, it happens within you. Your body is a masterful, intelligent, and designed to fend off pathogens, heal, grow, and thrive. Give your body what it needs, get rid of what it doesn’t, and it will surprise you with its amazing healing and protective powers.
It couldn’t be any clearer that we are on the wrong path. Going faster, pushing harder, and spending more money will only push us further down the wrong path, and further away from true health and vitality. Of course we need medicine. We need therapies. We need hospitals, doctors, and researchers. But time has shown that more of these things, doing things the way they are currently being done, is not the answer. It’s time to understand that true health resides inside of you, and YOU are responsible for maximizing that health. Get started today!