Preventive Medicine

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.

Your Body has not failed you!

I've decided that I need to help people change the way they feel about their bodies. Living in a society where biomedicine is the norm, it seems like when people get sick, they decide their bodies have failed them. Biomedicine has changed and evolved by pulling the body apart, looking super closely at its parts and trying to figure out every mechanism by which it works. Because of this we've gained some REALLY great techniques for saving and bettering lives! Look at all that biomedicine is able to do! Transplants, surgeries to repair ALL kinds of things, in vitro fertilization, cloning and SO much more is on the horizon. Science and biomedicine are pretty freakin' cool!

My problem with biomedicine comes when it leads people to think of the body as a bunch of replaceable parts - like your car. Our bodies are not machines that are prone to breaking down. Our bodies want to function properly! They strive to be healthy, even with all of the unhealthy things that are thrown at them!

Our bodies are incredibly stoic, and when they finally cry out for help, it's because the situation has become too much for our bodies to deal with. This is a time when we need to take a look at the lifestyle choices we've made. Do we consume alcohol? Do we consume lots of sugar? Do we smoke? Do we not exercise? Are we living an incredibly stressful life?

I'm not saying not to get biomedical help. Quite the contrary. Once a body has cried out, it's important to do whatever is necessary to reverse the situation. What I'm saying is that we need to be more proactive and preventive about our health, to prevent our bodies from having to cry out in the first place. We also need to change the environment that caused our bodies to cry out, so that it doesn't keep happening.

I want you to start by respecting your body and it's ability to persevere. Give it what it needs to function well. Don't give your body anything that won't allow it to flourish. But most of all, I want you to love your body and everything it does for you!

Photo Courtesy of: Health Right