If You're Not Outraged, You're Not Paying Attention

Many of you have seen this bumper sticker:  "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention."  I'm fairly certain that it has something to do with politics, but I thought of it again today when I comtemplated my involvement in health care.  Here's how I apply this particular bumper sticker...

We spend the most amount of money on healthcare, yet don't even reach the top 10 as far as overall health of a country.

One in four children in New York are obese.

2 out of 3 people are taking more than one prescription medication per day. Averages for the elderly approach 15 different medications in a day.

Doctors are regularly prescribing psychotropic drugs to children under the age of 5 for behavioral disorders.

Every year the flu shot fails to influence the mortality rate of susceptible populations while the manufacturers make billions on the population's fear.

More women will declare "Early detection!" and "Save the Ta-Tas!" and "Until there is a cure!", but will not spend one second wondering WHY we are getting more breast cancer and at a younger age.

Medical procedures and malpractice is the number one reason why people are dying in this country.

Americans don't sleep enough and often can't.

The economy goes down and the profits for McDonald's go up.

Pharmaceutical companies spend billions marketing drugs to consumers...and doctors.

Medical insurance companies are "for profit."

Our average age of mortality is 77.

Your health is a marketplace-spend your dollars wisely and with an educated mind.  Your health is sacred-you only get one body in this lifetime-there is no way around a good diet and regular exercise.  Spend some time learning how to keep it healthy and then spend the time (and out of pocket money) required to do so.  Know that medications are only a stop gap and often cause great damage to the body.  Know that heart disease and cancers are lifestyle diseases-you have a great deal of control in whether you create these diseases or not.

There is a new book out called "Anti-Cancer."  It is written by a medical doctor who had brain cancer and went into remission.  He asked his doctors if there were lifestyle changes he could make to support his health and they had nothing to say.  Luckily, he has lots to say about lifestyle and cancer.