Health Care Crisis- Heathcare or Sickcare?

The Health Care Crisis
By
Cindy Holt RN, BSN, LMT

I entered the health care field when the practice of medicine was fairly low tech. There were no MRI’s, and no lasers, and many of the drugs essential to us now were not available. Health care was pretty cheap 35 years ago, but times have changed. With the cost of this technology on the sharp rise, so went the cost of health care. We now expect a certain level of care, and it costs us a pretty penny. HMO’s (Health Maintenance Organizations) were created to help control costs by streamlining medical care and creating protocols designed to reduce waste and improve efficiency. Many think they just created a whole new series of problems, while taking the profit away from doctors and giving it to administrators.

My idea is that we need to be more proactive about our own health. It is irresponsible to expect the “system” to fix our bodies after we have done nothing to maintain it. We need well-care, not sick-care. We need to be the captain of our own ship, and this requires education. Exercise, diet, and proper rest are essential. Many of us have no idea what proper rest and diet consists of, much less how to get it. Exercise is important, but exercising wrong can diminish the benefits you want.

You can’t always trust the media to give you the truth, either. They print what sells copies, and sensational stories sell more than mundane truths about diet and exercise. As a registered nurse and wellness specialist, I feel it is my duty and privilege to educate the public on fact versus fiction. I tire of the endless critics of the vitamin industry. The fact is, taking high quality naturally sourced vitamin supplements can save your life. An article in the December 1996 journal of the American Medical Association cited a study where healthy volunteers taking selenium supplements for 5 years had 63% fewer prostate cancers, 58% fewer colon cancers, and 45% fewer lung cancers than the control group. And this is only one of the many antioxidants now known to be essential for good health. Scientific evidence now shows that low doses of several antioxidants taken together in a blended product have greater health benefits than larger doses of any single antioxidant.

Just like what you’d find in nature’s fruits and vegetables. Not all multiple vitamins are created equal, either. Some are so firmly compacted that they won’t even dissolve in your system, so are excreted whole. Some are purely chemical and not recognized by the body. Talk about money down the drain. Beverly Rubik, world renowned biophysicist, wrote “Nutritional supplements today are a necessity, not a luxury. People need the right combination of dietary supplements to improve and protect their health.” I agree with her. What’s in YOUR diet?