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Health Insight
Health in the 21st Centaury
Battles rage between the corporate giants who produce the drugs and medicines
that are used in our modern world. In these battles, politicians and even
governments rise and fall, and for those of us who have come to depend on these
drugs and medications, how does this affect us?
There are some key points you need to understand about our health care system:
- The key motive is financial profit.
- Treatments seek to eliminate the symptoms of disease.
- Diagnosis is an inexact science - initial diagnosis offered by the modern
medical profession is educated guesswork and interestingly doctors have a
shorter lifespan than most of us, see
Dead Doctors
Don't Lie
.
- Any medication has at best a 90% chance of being effective,
learn more
.
- All modern drugs are released onto the market with a 'degree
of acceptable risk pdf.'
- In Western Hospitals, authorities accept that approx 1 in 2,775 or 0.04% of
patients die from medical misadventure, however unofficial figures put this
three times higher, see titles on medical misadventure
.
We are not intending to dismiss the medical system as total quackery, we are
saying that it is far from perfect and advising you that your chance of dying in
hospital is greater than winning the lottery. But if you suffer a sudden onset
of pain or have an accident, a hospital is your best destination.
Traditional Medicines
Known as alternative health care in the West, these are medical systems that
have evolved over the history of humankind. Every culture has a unique approach
to the treatment and prevention of disease, but all share a common theme.
- Diagnosing the root cause of the illness
- Treating the whole individual and even the whole community.
- Treatments are by the use of herbs and herbal preparations, diet, dietary
supplements and
exercise.
- The success rate of traditional medicine is about the same as our modern
medicine.
- Traditional medicine is under pressure as the drug manufacturing
corporations are actively trying to force it out of business, whereas;
- Traditional medicine attempts to welcome and integrate with technological
medicine.
- The drug manufacturing corporations are isolating active ingredients from
herbal medicines to manufacture their own drugs.
Dietary Supplements are a vital aspect of traditional medicine as much as they
are vital for our wellbeing and yet are also threatened by drug corporations.
Safety of Dietary Supplements
Health in 2008
Those fortunate to live in the more affluent world of today find that life
expectancy in general has increased over the past 200 years as food is more
plentiful, our homes and access to health care have improved. However we have a
long way to go to live as long as some of the characters (from the old testament
in Christian bible) who lived to beyond 500 years of age.
While today's civilization has settled into a superficial peace following WW2,
small wars sponsored by greed and ignorance persist around the globe. The
external war between states mirrors the the widespread violence and crime within
our communities which is a reflection of the unhappiness in the hearts of the
citizens.
We all desire happiness and all our actions arise from this desire. Many people
work longer hours to acquire the bigger home and the flasher car. Others engage
in charity and altruism to appease their aching hearts, others simply bury their
heads in work to create the better future, while others simply exploit others to
gain wealth and this we loosely call 'business'.
Unhealthy Businesses
Being in business is about making profits and for a business to be profitable,
it must be successful. We have the manufacturing sector which primarily strips
resources from the earth without compensation and causes immeasurable
environmental damage. This is unhealthy business, unhealthy for the environment,
and unhealthy for us as on one hand we get transportation and consumer goods,
but on the other we get increased CO2 levels, depleted oxygen, deforestation,
loss of resources and a dumping of toxic waste into the environment which causes
cancers and other diseases.
Healthy Businesses
These are those that maintain life and restore the damage being done to our
planet, that exercise wisdom and put life before profits. Traditionally these
are the farmers, the custodians of the land and those who actively seek to
improve the human condition.
In short, unhealthy businesses undermine the health of the human population and
the planet while healthy businesses support life.
While it is often said that our health is our choice, and yes you can improve
your health by exploiting the weak, but you can improve your health by
supporting life and operating a healthy business.
Those of us not in business can only care for our own health by:
-
not dealing with unhealthy companies
-
working to clean up our own environment
-
lobbying to have unhealthy businesses banned from our communities
-
creating a balanced lifestyle
Modern Health Care - The ambulance at the foot of the cliff.
Have you had a feeling that something about your health was not quite right and your GP
said there was "nothing wrong". Are you just imagining..? Often times our
health declines and recovers without intervention, but all to frequently health
deteriorates and we adapt and live with a slowly growing disability that we
sometimes just put down to ageing.
While many minor injuries and illnesses heal without intervention, many
become chronic and our modern medical doctors often fail to diagnose any
symptoms which gives rise to ideas that general practitioners
are either not very good at diagnosis, or that they prefer to wait until
patients suffer acute or debilitating symptoms before offering assistance, which
by
then for some it is to late.
Of course diagnosis is not easy, and many doctors are reluctant to refer
patients for further diagnosis or treatment because the modern medical system is
already overburdened. In fact our
hospitals have
long waiting lists and by telling us that we are ok when we know we are not must
be either a failure to diagnose or a deliberate lie in the hope that the problem
will resolve itself.
So why do we go to doctors? In the Western world, there are millions
dissatisfied with the modern medical system which is why alternative medical
practices are developing.
The key difference between modern medicine and traditional or so called
alternative medicine, is that traditional medicine looks for the overall
imbalance or cause of the symptoms whereas modern medicine looks at the symptoms
and tries to fix them with drugs or surgery.
A life out of balance leads to suffering, it may be the effects of sitting at a
desk for eight hours per day in poor light, or eating a highly refined diet,
saturation with pollutants, unhappy relationships and many other lifestyle
choices which cause imbalance and over time the manifestation of physical
symptoms which cause us to seek help.
Our bodies are self regulating and self repairing organisms that if we provide
the right environment and nutrition, will remain fit and healthy over our life
span.
What is Good Health?
Good health may be
defined as life in balance or harmony, however this is not a
universal experience, there is a great deal of ill health and
suffering caused by poverty, malnutrition, greed,
injustice, pollution and stresses which wreck havoc on our human
biology and ecosystem on which we are totally dependent.
We live in an era where traditional medicines are being pushed aside
by the medical corporations.
How do we stay healthy when much of our processed food is junk? Excess sugar causes diabetes, tooth decay and weakens the
human body. Much of our food is
grown with oil based agrochemicals and pesticides of
which one exposure to or ingestion of is unnoticeable, but over time
these toxins accumulate in the environment and our bodies.
A new threat to our biology are the genetically modified
or irradiated foods. This is a new science of which the consequences
to our health and survival are largely unknown and it may take a
thousand years for a risk assessment to be completed, yet these are
being forced upon us.
In the developed world dis-ease is growing rapidly despite the best
efforts to control the many symptoms which continue to emerge,
compromising and limiting life quality and span. Although we have a
greater quantity of foods, the nutritional quality of our foods is
deteriorating.
Awareness is growing retrospectively as to the consequences of
pollution and the over use of the industrial and agricultural chemicals
now found in our food chain diminish our health. The understanding
of this has been cried out loudly by the natural health movement, green
activists and those with a genuine concern for humanity for many years but
ignored by politicians and the larger population.
Imbalance may not seem
significant for many years until acute symptoms appear. Symptoms are many;
change, headaches, irregular periods, weakness or
increasing emotional, mental physical or social concerns.
The human condition and health.
Humanity has come from a hunter gatherer society to our modern industrial
civilization where industry and consumerism are about to destroy us and
our world.
Throughout the world, disease is widespread and new diseases continue to emerge
as disease and it's carriers thrive in poverty and ignorance. The cost of
health is rising as pollution causes cancers and weakens our bodies making
us more susceptible to disease and illness.
The New Zealand population despite the clean country's clean green
image suffers greatly from chronic asthma, diabetes, heart conditions,
skin problems and other conditions which in our opinion, this is due to
the previous indiscriminate high use of agricultural and industrial
chemicals. Today, despite the growing awareness, public concern, the
actions of more responsible government, New Zealand farmers still
use chemicals banned in many countries, (like 245t) Industry and
automobiles continue to pollute the environment and our food chain to the
extent that over 90% of NZ produced foods are contaminated with some
chemical residues which are allowable under current legislation .
For a completely healthy person, one or two chemical residues are
harmless, but when most of the food is contaminated, and the air we
breathe is contaminated, and often the ground and buildings we live in are
contaminated, these residues can accumulate in the body and react
with each other to cause symptoms without any obvious cause (as with
asthma). And at the present time where everyone suffers some ill
health, and we are seeing the fertility rate fall and children born with
illness, action is long overdue.
The actions of governments to address the current human crises are
inadequate as government can only govern with the will of the people and
are not totally to blame. However it is the responsibility of government
and the people to plan for the future generations as well as deal with our
day to day emergencies.
As citizens self care is our own individual responsibility, no one can
do it for us. The actions we must take for the health our selves and
our families, is to take care and as much as possible to avoid purchasing
contaminated foods and to reduce as much as possible contaminants in our
immediate environment.
Responsible action means that you are more likely to purchase from eco
friendly suppliers, who will then produce a greater quantity and
range of products, while the chemical industry will slowly diminish and
the health of the whole population improve.
Government must also play it's part, in a democracy, a government is
supposed to fulfill the wishes of the people. However in reality,
democratic governments work more as co-operative dictatorships.
However there is no point in electing a new government or political party
to power, all that ever happens is a slight shift in focus and the public
get more confused.
Here it is up to us individuals to act, vote for commonsense
leadership, and more importantly chose to purchase goods that support
life. Unfortunately we cannot step away from wage slavery, but we
can be more active in paying off mortgages and developing a more healthy
lifestyle where there is real joy in waking to the new day.
Although we have a greater quantity of foods, the nutritional quality of
our foods is deteriorating.
The ruling elite are more concerned with profits and power than the life
span or life quality of those they rule over.
To reduce the poisoning of the
population are mostly economic, as at some point in time government will
have to foot the bill for ongoing disease treatment. Economically,
government is slowly realizing that a healthy population can be more
productive and make the national economy more profitable, so there is
hope.
But the
public are either bound to wage slavery and forced to take the cheapest
foods on offer. The cheaper foods however tend to be the most processed/chemicalised
foods available
as they are the cheapest to produce. Many others are simply to bound up in their dreams to
care, (or to learn to care).
And industry would like people to simply be conformist production units
where in the interests of greater profits, chemical and now GE farming
will mean that they will be able to pay lower wages on which the workers
will be able to survive for a determinable economic lifespan.
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