What Exactly Is Health About, And Why Is It So Hard To Attain?

We live in a wealthy country, with some of the best hospitals, cancer treatment centers, doctors etc. around.  We spend more money in our health care system than most developed countries.  Yet we remain in a race for dead last in overall health compared to other developed countries.  We have more drugs and surgeries available than we had 50 years ago, yet we are much less healthy than we were 50 years ago.  Cardiovascular disease is being found in younger and younger people.  Cancer rates are rising  Type II diabetes is becoming so rampant that it expected that 1 in 3 kids born this year (2015) will develop it in their lifetime (note the word “develop”).  Why?  Why are we in such sad shape?

Partly it’s because we have developed a culture that says “for every ill there is a pill”.  Our medical doctors, the largest purveyors of health care in our country, have but two tools with which to work:  drugs and surgery.  While those are great at helping out in crisis situations, they are horrible for helping people attain optimum health.  All drugs and surgery have side effects that are negative.  Neither of them have anything to do with improving health, only helping out in emergencies.

Instead we need to look at our lifestyles. If our genes haven’t changed that drastically in the last generation or so (and they haven’t), but our health as a nation has declined significantly (and it has) then the only option we have for attaining optimum health is to look at our lifestyles.  At HealthSource of Atascocita, we have a tool called the Health Risk Assessment that evaluates our lifestyle habits.  We then teach our patients to eat well, move well, think well and rest well.  Think about this:  Which of the major causes of death (ie cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer) wouldn’t be decreased or erased if we all ate, moved, thought and rested the way we’re designed to?  Answer:  NONE.

Thomas Edison said it best:  The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.  At HealthSource of Atascocita, we concur.