I was reading an article today about biomedical health care and its outrageous costs. This isn't what I'm going to talk about today, however. In this article it mentioned that if people would use preventive medicine, it could greatly decrease the cost of health care overall by preventing the BIG health care costs such as bypass surgery, diabetes, etc. I agreed with this statement UNTIL it qualified what it meant by "preventive medicine."Preventive medicine, according to this author, was the use of medications to prevent further disease. The example that was given was this: If a patient with high cholesterol would simply take statin-drugs to lower their cholesterol, they could likely prevent heart disease which can lead to further complications and further costs.
I sighed when I read this. While the above statement is true, it's missing the point. We, as a society, still haven't seemed to have figured out what preventive medicine is. It doesn't mean taking a pill for the rest of our lives to cover up a symptom. While this can be a valid step in making sure irreparable damage isn't done, it isn't preventive medicine.
Now, don't get me wrong. It is often necessary for someone to take a pill while their body learns to take over the function that the pill is meant to mimic. In the above case, it is extremely important to get high cholesterol under control, and a drug may be necessary to achieve this quickly to avoid damage to the vascular system. However, there are further steps that are required! Diet and exercise changes among the basic of these.
The end goal of ANY branch of medicine should not be to merely get bloodwork numbers within an acceptable range, but for the patient to be able to sustain those numbers on their own at some point.
(Disclaimer: I'm not saying that all people should live medication-free. Some health concerns are uncontrollable without chemical intervention. However, in an ideal world, these patients are still keeping their medication doses as low as possible by using preventive medicine.)
Preventive medicine should be seen as medicine that teaches and allows the body to function properly without chemical intervention on a permanent basis.
So true!! My boss does research based around obesity. All people are looking for is a magical pill to make them healthy so that they can otherwise live an unhealthy lifestyle. It drives me a little nutty sometimes! If people would just take care of themselves in the first place, a lot of times they wouldn't get to where they are.
ReplyDeleteThere needs to be a massive overhaul of what we think "being healthy" means. Patients come in to see me all the time, and say they're healthy except for... (fill in what part of the body hurts) Then they tell me the long list of drugs they're on for their pre-diabetes, their high cholesterol, etc.
ReplyDeleteI love the WHO's definition of health:
ReplyDelete"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and nt merely the absence of disease or infirmity."
Thank you for posting your blog! All my GP and OB ever want to do is prescribe pills or do exploratory surgery (even when there's no indication it's necessary). When my sciatic nerve acted up, my GP wouldn't release me to the chiropractor (which my insurance would cover) because (I guess) he wouldn't be getting paid his monthly fee for having me on his patient list. He'd refer me to an acupuncturist in his office (not a bad thing, except insurance didn't cover it), and he'd prescribe vicadin, that's it.
I now pay out of pocket for acupuncture for my wellness needs and save the GP for script writing when symptoms are acute. I feel better with acupuncture than I have for a long, long time!
Ellen, Thank you for sharing WHO's definition! It's exactly how I feel about my health and the health of my patients. We should ALL be motivated to make this our definition of health!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry that you've had to work around insurance to get what you want and need out of the health care system, but I'm SO glad that you've found a combination that works for you! We have to be responsible for our own health, even if the system doesn't help as much as we think it should.