Own Your Health

I've been thinking about how prescription drugs cause more problems than they seem to treat or cure. It seems odd that I have to take other drugs to counteract the side effects of the primary drugs I have to take. The alternative is to either stop the drugs I need, or to suffer with their side effects. 

I used to take methotrexate for my RA.  After five years, it began damaging my liver, so it was discontinued.  Since my rheumy didn't replace it with anything, my health deteriorated substantially (even though it was in already in the crapper prior to this) until I decided to become a cannabis patient. Cannabis did what the other drugs couldn't do.  It normalized my immune system enough so that I no longer have severe RA.  I still have RA, but it's manageable now.  Of course the federal government views me as a criminal and a drug addict, but I digress...

We all know that we take too many prescription drugs.  But how many of us try to figure out how we got to the point of needing them in the first place?  We're really on our own for the most part if we do because most doctors don't address this issue.  They treat "problems" and not the source of those problems.  A newer branch of medicine exists now called functional medicine that does focus on causation.  Dr. Mark Hyman is one such doctor.  Go to his website www.drhyman.com and get his take on the source of many of our medical problems.  It's revealing.  If we don't understand how we got unhealthy in the first place, we'll never make the changes in our lives that we need to make.  Doctors get rich and Big Pharma gets even richer and we all suffer in the long run.

It's the clinical version of the self-fulfilling prophecy.  

The goal of our health care system should be, you know, health.  The goal should be to never go into your doctor's office...for anything.  It should be a last resort.  Instead, we create huge imbalances in our bodies by the foods we eat and the environment we live in, and the result is disease.  Doctors should be investigating how we live and how that might be contributing to the problems that we have.  But no one wants to because it's too hard now.  It's too messy.  And that "socialism" word gets thrown into the mix and nothing happens.

For the record, these things are not socialism:

• vegetarianism/veganism
• requiring labeling for GMO foods
• banning GMO foods
• inspections - of farms, processing facilities, etc.
• the Clean Air Act
• the EPA
• ooh, universal health care, ooh
• banning radiated food
• growing industrial hemp (calm down, it doesn't get anyone high)

That's not a complete list, but you get the idea.  Somehow, the pressure is on from the naysayers to disregard anything that protects us and gives us the information we need to make the best decisions possible as an unconstitutional assault on our freedom.  You know, socialism.  President Obama says we can't let the perfect become the enemy of the good to illustrate that we can't keep doing nothing. We can't continually make excuses that solutions are too difficult or they cost too much.  And while we're at it, let's forget about the blame game as well.  It's not as if any of us intended to become ill.  But we have to allow for the possibility that some of the choices (conscious or not) we've made, or that have been made for us, have led us to the unhealthy state in which many of us now exist.  Forget the blame, and focus on the solution.  If your doctor stands in the way, then get another doctor.  If your politicians stand in the way, vote them out.  Redefine the notion of authority figure to include yourself. Trust me on this.  We know more than they do.  We live it.  They only observe and then complicate everything.

Look, it's not like I believe my doctors are worthless.  They aren't.  Everyone I see is compassionate and they really do want to help their patients.  But I don't believe that they received the training that they should have.  That needs to change.  When doctors prescribe medication, they need to fully understand the side effects and if there are supplements that can help offset them, then prescribe those as well.  This is particularly necessary if the patient needs to be on the meds for a long time. And for heavens sake, if someone is on a drug long-term, monitor the side effects.  Don't wait until they surface.  Patients don't remember to do that and to rely on them for that information is foolish.

Complacency doesn't serve anyone well.  Being proactive is the better choice.  It's okay to say no to your doctor.  It's okay to make them defend what they're asking you to do.  Take back the authority over your body and your health.  It's your right, not to mention your responsibility.