Who Truly Has Your Best Health Interest in Mind?
In a place like the United States, where healthcare is the first cause of personal bankruptcy and the most profitable of all businesses, the responsibility of keeping ourselves optimally healthy has never been greater. As adults, we are always 100% responsible for our health choices, but this is especially true in the Information Age, where quality information is freely and abundantly available to us.
If such is the case, why are so many sick people still relying on this money-sucking system to guide their health decisions? Isn’t now the time, since we have thousands upon thousands of health resources literally at our fingertips, to also hold ourselves more accountable for what food we put in our bodies, how much strength and endurance we build through exercise, and how well we take care of each organ system via regular detoxification of our blood, organs, tissues, and cells?
One challenge of the Information Age is, of course, our access to so much information that it is easy to become overwhelmed trying to sort through data that conflict enough to confuse even the healthcare professionals. This, paired with a decreased attention span in most people, leads to reluctance in many to perform due diligence and figure out which resources are worth paying attention to and which ones show on the first pages of search engines because of who is paying for these to appear on top, and why. The most important or telling reasons for specific segments of information to be pushed on the general public are rarely, if at all, heard about in the news or found online, and this is where those who put in the time to look and learn more in depth have what some may call an unfair advantage.
It is not an unfair advantage. Rather, it’s called due diligence with the purpose to develop good critical thinking skills. In order to really understand what is going on in the world of science and healthcare, however, we must also develop more in-depth knowledge about how money works historically and what motivates certain groups that are crucial players in health decision-making to give the advice they give, and why we should be cautious of this advice. I am talking about the powers at be in government and the private sector.
You must know to whom those at the top of the government healthcare or private healthcare sector ladders really cater in order to keep their positions. Find out how long they have been in power. If the answer is more than a decade, you’ve got a big problem. Most of us take for granted that a person working in healthcare has integrity if he or she presents an impressive CV. We tend not to watch and scrutinize their actions as closely as we scrutinize the actions of politicians we hate. Well, I’d suggest we should reevaluate this, because the longer they’ve stayed at the top, the longer their track record is. Pay especially close attention if they have been entrenched in power for over thirty years. Forty years? Bad news. Just as in politics, patterns repeat here, too! Take note of their actions, the results from their actions, and draw your conclusions. Yes, you will need to dig into resources other than the mainstream media news. And yes, it will require some extra time. A lot of extra time! Taking that extra time may be the best favor you’ll ever do to yourself and your loved ones.
Preferably, make sure to read books by scientists or medical doctors who have chosen to leave the system on their own terms, prompted by integrity motives. You will learn a great deal, and it won’t be pleasant. But it’s vitally important for your critical thinking. You will better understand how peer-reviewed research really works. You will get a better grasp on who pays for certain research to occur and for other research not to occur; or, if that other research has, actually, occurred and shown great health outcomes, you will see the reasons behind its not being the norm in contemporary Western healthcare. Hint: you will likely need to start from the 1930s!
The other fundamental problem is that holding ourselves accountable for our health decision-making can be one of the hardest tasks, and the reasons for this are easier to organize and comprehend if we look at life aspects other than health but connected to health. There are various rationales people give to justify poor health choices. Part of the self-accountability process consists of being able to differentiate as to whether these are true arguments or simply excuses hidden under circumstantial explanations, including life situations or doctor’s advice.
Ultimately, we must develop the urge to ask ourselves the following questions:
Who is giving the advice and what motivates them?
Who is paying a specific health organization or professional to tell us which food products are must-eats if we want to be healthy?
Who is funding the so-called research that the dot-gov health websites like to present in front of our eyes?
Are hospitals and other key decision-making health institutions following this research when determining what food to offer to their patients, staff, students, or visitors?
Is there alternative research?
If yes, and abundantly so, why do we have to dig into piles of websites, books, and resources to find it?
Who is paying the mainstream media to advertise the food and drugs they advertise?
Who owns the mainstream healthcare organizations, and how many millions of dollars per year are we talking?
Buying a food product just because you saw it advertised on TV is a poor health strategy. And, compromising your health for the sake of pleasing friends or relatives is just as poor a health strategy. A typical example is when you visit a friend or a relative, and they offer you an unhealthy food product. It happens all the time. While we all know they think they’re being hospitable, you don’t have to eat this food. Instead, you can thank them and then politely decline while explaining your dietary regimen. Do not use that person as an excuse to consume unhealthy food. If they become upset, it is their problem, not yours. Also, understand that it is 100% your responsibility to have your best health interest in mind, not theirs; therefore, stop using them to justify your lack of self-discipline.
On the rare occasions when I visit friends or relatives, I make it explicitly clear prior to my visit that they don’t need to prepare anything, because I am on a very strict diet regimen. I let them know I consume no animal products or processed foods/drinks. Lastly, I request that they don’t waste time with any complex preparations and assure them that I’d greatly appreciate a simple caffeine-free organic herbal tea or a plain glass of filtered water. This is a win-win situation — it takes the host two minutes to prepare a tea on the spot, and I don’t compromise my integrity.
As a healthcare professional, I am the first to admit my disappointment with so many of my colleagues not leading by example, as reflected by the bewilderingly poor control they exhibit over their own health and lifestyle choices. My disillusionment with the establishment began shortly after I enrolled in nursing school and it only kept growing as I progressed in my career year after year after year. I knew I wasn’t being diplomatic while describing these colleagues in Chapter 3 of my book, It Really Is Simple: A Holistic Approach to Self-Confidence. Let me tell you, I am frankly tired of patients greeting me at their doorstep with the words, “Oh, wow, thank you for not being a morbidly obese nurse! The hospital was full of them!” I imagine this is meant as a compliment on their part, but it embarrasses me because I know that, as professionals, we have failed our patients on multiple levels, and the one level that screams at them the loudest is our own health practices as evidenced by the examples we become to those we treat and educate. Among the worst comments I’ve heard when interacting with frustrated patients is, “Well, nurses and doctors walk around fat and sick all day long, and they’re supposed to know everything about health and apply it. What are my chances then, not having nearly as much knowledge?”
To the present day, I have no explanation as to why many doctors and nurses who have spent multiple hours (I sure hope so!) reading enormous textbooks on anatomy, pathophysiology, medical-surgical, pharmacology, etc., choose to display unhealthy living habits to their patients and loved ones, along with the corresponding physical, mental, and emotional manifestations of these habits. But I’ll tell you this for nothing: our chronically sick patients like to carry on with their own rationalizations for staying where they are and not performing the actions needed to reverse their chronic conditions. They hold onto their excuses for dear life! Among the common rationalizations people like to use left and right are, “The doctor smokes/the nurse just went on her third cigarette break, so why shouldn’t I smoke? It must not be that bad for me!” or “The hospital staff are eating French fries in the cafeteria, so why can’t I?” or “Obviously, there are multiple doctors and nurses who are overweight and haven’t died yet.” My beloved father was one of those people adept at observing in his doctors the exact things my mother and I were warning him against, and used these observations to rationalize his behavior until he died right after he turned seventy-two.
In conclusion, I’d like to relate the following to those same health professionals: it does not matter how much we advise and teach healthcare if we don’t lead by personal example! The reason this is a true statement is that, nine times out of ten, our chronically sick patients will choose to point out the worst practices we set forth in our own lifestyles before they listen to and act upon any advice, education, or suggestions! Please, let’s kindly keep this in mind for the rest of our working days and beyond! Thank you.