Healthcare: 7 Things to Know

Healthcare and prescription drug costs continue to rise at the fastest rates in history. The U.S. spends nearly $2 Trillion on healthcare annually ($4 trillion in 2020), a staggering 15-20% of its gross domestic product, and we currently spend about $300+ billion on prescriptions annually. 

Yet incidences of chronic and debilitating disease continue to rise and impact younger generations each year despite advances in medicine and our understanding of health and vitality.

Our knowledge of how to prevent disease through healthy lifestyles and nutritional supplements is greater than ever, but the conventional healthcare system remains stubbornly rooted in the past, relying too heavily on surgical and drug solutions for answers. 

Here are 7 things you may not know about the healthcare system: 

1. Traditional healthcare needs you to be sick.

 Although mounting evidence points to the positive effects of a proper diet, regular exercise, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and the benefits of nutritional supplementation to prevent illness and promote a long life, modern healthcare seems to focus on treating existing diseases with overpriced drugs and medical procedures rather than putting energy on teaching prevention. 

Why? Because the current healthcare system in all its forms – from hospitals and doctor’s offices to drug companies and pharmacies – operates as a business. As such, it needs to make money. It can’t make money if everyone is healthy, so to survive it needs you to be sick.

2. The current healthcare system treats symptoms, not causes.

Our traditional healthcare system focuses on treating symptoms of illness instead of causes or cures. Suppressing symptoms is not the best choice for long-term health and longevity, but it is often the most immediate temporary fix and it get a paying customer indefinitely. For example: pain is the most common symptom of arthritis. Most prescribed and over the counter medications used to “treat” arthritis are really painkillers. While this may help take away the symptom of pain it doesn’t take away arthritis. Same rules apply to heartburn medications, type II diabetes, heart disease and more illnesses that plague people everyday.

3. The four leading diseases are largely preventable. 

Heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes account for about 83% of all deaths. Heart disease is the #1 killer of both men and women, and cancer affects 1 in 2 people. Strokes kill more than 130,000+ people annually in the U.S. alone, and close to 7% of the population is affected by Type II diabetes.

The big four killers are largely lifestyle diseases which means they develop as a result of lifestyle factors within a person’s control, such as diet and exercise habits, stress levels and free-radical exposure (that one is a little harder to control but you can reduce), rather than simply as a result of genetics or chance. 

Here are some statistics for you: 

  • The American Cancer Society estimates that approximately ⅓ of cancer deaths each year in the U.S. are linked to diet and nutrition. 
  • 80% of the food on grocery shelves did not exist 100 years ago. 
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that regular physical exercise reduces heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure and colon cancer risks by nearly 50%. 
  • Just drinking more water can reduce heart attack mortality by up to 40% according to a study from American Journal of Epidemiology. 

4. Antibiotics are becoming rapidly irrelevant. 

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that more than 20 million unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions are handed out each year, which is contributing to the gradual ineffectiveness of antibiotic therapy and a rise in drug-resistant bacterial strains. 95% of Staph bacteria is resistant to antibiotics and MRSA is causing more deaths in the U.S. than AIDS according to a report from the Journal of the American Medical Association. Most doctors are now at a loss on how to treat serious strains of microbes that threaten the public.

*Need a natural protocol for immunity support or to aid in fighting Staph/MRSA contact me. 

5. Prescription drugs can be deadly. 

Drug companies have taken so much control over modern medicine that for many it feels like doctors have become drug pushers. We are constantly being bombarded with advertisements for prescription medications designed to address this health issue or that one, while seriously down playing related side effects. Few people know that new prescription drugs have a 1 in 5 chance of causing serious reactions after they have been approved.  And decisions on which drugs to take are mostly left up to the companies selling them rather than trained medical professionals. 

Why is this an issue? Drugs should be a last resort, not a first one. Not only do they come with a myriad of side effects, there are also 2+ million cases of adverse reactions related to prescription drugs each year! Most people who are harmed by drugs are taking them as prescribed. About 128,000 people die from drugs prescribed to them. This makes prescription drugs a major health risk, ranking 4th with stroke as a leading cause of death.

6. Hospitals may be hazardous to your health. 

7.5 million unnecessary medical procedures are performed each year. Hospitals are also a main location for some of the deadliest drug-resistant bacteria existing today. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 5 percent of all hospital admissions result in a healthcare-associated infection, culminating in approximately 722,000 infections and 75,000+ deaths each year as well as $28–33 billion in excess costs.

7. Conventional medicine is a leading cause of death in the United States. 

Analyzing medical death rate data over an eight-year period, Johns Hopkins patient safety experts have calculated that anywhere from 250,000-400,000 deaths per year are due to medical error in the U.S. making it the 3rd leading cause of death. 

After reading some of the more hidden aspects of today’s healthcare you may be asking yourself what you can do to improve your health from a prevention standpoint.

To learn 6 Steps to Wellness you can take now click here

To get more personal support hire a qualified health coach.

Medical Disclaimer: The information on this site is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this web site is for general information purposes only. Know Mommy makes no representation and assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of information contained on or available through this website, and such information is subject to change without notice. You are encouraged to confirm any information obtained from or through this web site with other sources, and review all information regarding any medical condition or treatment with your physician.

More Articles