One of the biggest ironies in the practice of medicine is that there is very little focus on prevention.
There’s the colonoscopy, the mammogram, blood work such as hgbA1c and PSA level- but is that really prevention? Sounds more like…waiting for it to happen.
Something that everyone should know is that there is a huge influence of the Business of Medicine on the Practice of Medicine. For example, instead of preventing someone with hypertension and high cholesterol from suffering a heart attack, wouldn’t the common sense thing be- to help someone from developing these diagnoses in the first place? Isn’t this real prevention? According to Dr. Michael Gregor- “the pandemic of chronic disease has been ascribed in part to the near-universal shift toward a diet dominated by animal-sourced and processed foods – in other words, more meat, dairy, eggs, oils, soda, sugar, and refined grains.”
While we view heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, some autoimmune diseases, depression, and other chronic illnesses as really different from each other, they share common origins and underlying biological causes. It’s amazing to think simple lifestyle changes can have such a huge and powerful impact – but they do!
Perhaps it’s going back to the basics, but you can advocate for your own life and health- by what you eat, your activity level and exercise, knowing and understanding how you feel, and feeling the LOVE. You CAN implement these life-saving changes into your own life!