A couple of weeks ago I was listening to the presidential candidates debate about a topic that has been discussed at every presidential debate since I can remember… health care. During the debate one of the candidates said that the solution was “investing in preventative health care.” What a great idea if we can prevent disease and illness from occurring then we inevitably spend less on health care. As a country we spend far and beyond more money on health care than any other country, however we rank close to last among industrialized nations in all indicators of health. So what does “investing in preventative health care” really mean? Does it mean more money for “preventative” drugs like cholesterol and blood pressure lowering medications, or depression medications? Or how about more money for flu vaccines? The truth is we have spent more money on drugs, vaccines, and surgeries every single year and our country as a whole continues to get sicker and sicker.
So what is wrong with our health care system? The problem is our “health care” system is mislabeled. Medicine as we know it today isn’t “health care” it is “crisis care!” And there is no other place in the entire world that I would want to be in a crisis. There is no other country that saves more lives during a heart attack, stoke, or a traumatic accident. No other country saves more people with cancer and diabetes than does the United States. However medicine has failed at preventing disease and illness year after year.
Let’s use an analogy to describe this situation. Medicine is like the fire department. If your house is burning you call the fire department and they come to your house knock your door down, smash out your windows, and spray all your precious belongings down with water. And you will be standing on the curb feeling grateful that they saved the life of your house. But you are left with a knocked out, drenched down house that needs some serious rebuilding.
The next day just before you are going to call the construction company to rebuild your home you get a call from the fire department, “Mrs. Jones this is the fire marshal we want to come to your house and drench it down with water once a week for the rest of your life.”
Of course Mrs. Jones responds, “Are you kidding me why would I want you to do that?”
“Well Mrs. Jones we have done studies and it has shown that houses that are drenched with water once a week have a lesser chance of catching on fire.”
By this time Mrs. Jones is confused and she replies, “That doesn’t make any sense my house would be rotting from all the water.”
Now the fire marshal is getting impatient and he says, “Mrs. Jones don’t you know how dangerous fires are? Don’t you know how many lives house fires take every year?” And he uses fear to convince you to continue to drench down your house while it rots.
If we are truly going to invest in prevention we don’t need more money for axes and fire hoses. All we really need is wood, nails, and hammers, the tools used by carpenters to rebuild and maintain. And if by chance there is a fire by all means we need to get the fire department over to save that house. But the key is to use the right profession at the right time and the carpenters of the body are chiropractors.
Stay tuned to find out how chiropractic rebuilds and maintains the body.
So what is wrong with our health care system? The problem is our “health care” system is mislabeled. Medicine as we know it today isn’t “health care” it is “crisis care!” And there is no other place in the entire world that I would want to be in a crisis. There is no other country that saves more lives during a heart attack, stoke, or a traumatic accident. No other country saves more people with cancer and diabetes than does the United States. However medicine has failed at preventing disease and illness year after year.
Let’s use an analogy to describe this situation. Medicine is like the fire department. If your house is burning you call the fire department and they come to your house knock your door down, smash out your windows, and spray all your precious belongings down with water. And you will be standing on the curb feeling grateful that they saved the life of your house. But you are left with a knocked out, drenched down house that needs some serious rebuilding.
The next day just before you are going to call the construction company to rebuild your home you get a call from the fire department, “Mrs. Jones this is the fire marshal we want to come to your house and drench it down with water once a week for the rest of your life.”
Of course Mrs. Jones responds, “Are you kidding me why would I want you to do that?”
“Well Mrs. Jones we have done studies and it has shown that houses that are drenched with water once a week have a lesser chance of catching on fire.”
By this time Mrs. Jones is confused and she replies, “That doesn’t make any sense my house would be rotting from all the water.”
Now the fire marshal is getting impatient and he says, “Mrs. Jones don’t you know how dangerous fires are? Don’t you know how many lives house fires take every year?” And he uses fear to convince you to continue to drench down your house while it rots.
If we are truly going to invest in prevention we don’t need more money for axes and fire hoses. All we really need is wood, nails, and hammers, the tools used by carpenters to rebuild and maintain. And if by chance there is a fire by all means we need to get the fire department over to save that house. But the key is to use the right profession at the right time and the carpenters of the body are chiropractors.
Stay tuned to find out how chiropractic rebuilds and maintains the body.
