Medical Freedom

All of the speeches given at the 2016 Health Freedom rally in California were inspiring and are worth watching. David Wolfe’s really got me thinking about what has happened in the United States.

While I think it’s shameful how many sick people fall into bankruptcy or hopelessness or die because they can’t get the treatment needed, I am not a fan of the ACA. Sickness took a big hit on my family’s finances and we have to piece together little by little our health when we are able. Month by month we all are recovering but many ill people's, especially Lymies, hands are completely tied. I will not raise my arm for universal healthcare. To me in order to have that, FIRST healthcare that is inclusive of alternative treatment must be part of that system.

What the ACA did in my world is push small businesses into one choice where it is impossible for most of us to offer insurance, which at one time we did. Our premium rose 30% one year and 50% another year reaching $1,800 a month. So in 2015 due to our financial woes, we dropped it. Because growing up my brother was sick, I had been brought up the value of having health insurance. From the first time it was offered, I jumped on it. When we lost it, first I felt worried to not have that life boat. The longer we are without it, the more safe I feel not having it. See something did happen prior to dropping it. I got sick. Our children’s health was backsliding from their well visits and Lyme and mold and insurance didn’t cover anything I needed to restore our health, outside of blood work. No doctor I saw within that insurance helped me or my children. Absolutely insurance has its place for people having babies and for people who need to see regular doctors. I get that. Hospital expenses can easily reach into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Maybe one day we’ll get some kind of major medical but for now we need that money for supplements.   

The bigger picture to me is how insurance has trained people to think that health is found within our system. I can’t count how many times people have asked me for advice. I’ve offered some kinds of practitioners I have found helpful and the conversation ends with “My insurance doesn’t cover that.” Off they go to continue swimming around in the pharmaceutical funded healthcare system, never finding answers. Symptom management is found there, but it is not always safe. Sometimes all we need are the proper supplements but the AMA-trained don’t know how to look. I mean every alternative practitioner I have met sells supplements. Does your doctor sell any? Nope, but they can give you a sample of something from a pharm company. A few have listened to what I have to say and are on their way to recovering. I am deeply humbled that they respected me enough to hear me.

It’s no secret doctors are limited in ordering tests. Insurance companies now dictate which are covered. Pharmaceutical companies dictate what medicine should be used to manage symptoms. Meanwhile consumers constantly fight for coverage they thought they had. We have to be informed to ask for safer drugs if the pill of the year has concerning side effects. Doctors and nurses aren’t even allowed to seek answers for patients between the orders they take from those two driving forces, topped with patients not wanting to or not being able to afford to pay out of pocket. The time alone most practitioners have for patients has their hands tied. I was FLOORED at my first appointment with my functional doctor because of how much time he spent with me and how he read my blood work as a whole, not just looking down that piece of paper for flags. It was the first time in my life I actually felt like a doctor REALLY cared about me. Even practitioners like him have their hands tied because research about treating the whole body has been suppressed. However, a patient can get A LOT further with the kind of holistic view people like him learned.

If you ask a doctor what can you do nutritionally to support healing, very few of them have advice. Some will even say “nothing” which is just silly. Every condition is affected by what we eat. Honestly, I feel empathy for the healers who chose to go the med school route without adding on other means of healing. They meant to do a service to people. I believe most of them had good intentions and I believe some are out there trying but it’s like trying to fix a car’s engine with a body shop’s tool box. Then there are those who have gotten wrapped up in the ego of having that degree and can’t see outside of the books that trained them. The science of health is an ongoing education.  

We have an extension on our taxes and I am not yet sure if we have to pay the fine for not having health insurance. What a ridiculous tax that is. On one hand you are fining people who can’t afford the insurance, no matter how much the cost is reduced. On the other hand you have people who don’t want to participate in this health care system being fined for choosing natural means to stay healthy or treat their illnesses as they arise. If someone has great health through herbal medicine or Ayurvedic medicine or traditional Chinese medicine why should they be financially punished for that choice? There are thousands of years of practice behind these ways. It’s almost like fining people who can afford to send their children to private school for not going to public school. They are already paying out of pocket for that choice.

I’m not suggesting everyone go out and drop their health insurance, but I am suggesting that people stop using the marketing slogan “It’s not covered by my insurance.” That thing, whatever it is, outside of your insurance may be just what you need, and can you put a price on your life? My personal joke is if the first few pages of Google, or Snopes for all that matters, says something is quackery, then that is a sign to look into the real life applications and read from people who healed with that method and dig further into the research. Of the numerous AMA doctors I saw before I found my way out of the system, only one gave me a page about foods that would help. That was followed by a comment of “We don’t really know what causes it.” This industry loves to toss around the word science when what it actually practices is not often scientific in regard to the treatment of a body. As Del Bigtree said,with such resonating force, at that same rally, "Science is NEVER settled." If a specialist doesn’t know what causes it, then following their advice is an act of faith and when it comes to faith, we are entitled to freedom. David Wolfe presented this quote...

“Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come

when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship to restrict

the art of healing to one class of Men and deny equal privileges to

others; the Constitution of the Republic should make a Special

privilege for medical freedoms as well as religious freedom.” 

Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence

  

Hero Worship

I’ve written some other posts but kept them private, for now at least. A lot has happened since the IPhone release.

So I went to a store late the other night and bought M. a little shirt for her birthday. I always remove hangers for the cashier. As I did so it flipped out of my hand and I said something like sheesh, I’m sorry. I’m really glad that didn’t hit you. She then told me a customer hit her with a shopping cart and didn’t apologize. I was like seriously? She told me how she’s had to develop a thicker skin working there and was brought to tears by how she was treated on some days. I told her I understood because I work in foodservice. She said something like wow, you’re strong. I worked in food for awhile and went home crying EVERY night. “In retail, people think they are better than you. In food they know they are.” Pause and think about what that means as humans. I have a post I need to clean up about how ridiculous it is how human fuel providers are treated but that is for another time. 

Her comment circled back around from a different perspective.  Food service workers do face a lot of abuse from customers. We are lucky in our establishment as we have largely attracted kind souls. However we have not been immune to people who take out their bad days on us.

Today’s thought on this topic is hero worship. There is nothing people do that is more important than with what fuel we put in our bodies. You choose to either fuel yourself with food that drags you down or food that empowers your body. Yet this profession's staff are treated like servants.

Meanwhile what I see from my doorway are people who worship white coat wearing humans as Gods and think that health comes from the doctor’s office. I mean surely they MUST be better than us right? Since our country places value with dollars, they just must be smarter than we are. Surely they must never be wrong because they spend countless hours and enormous dollars learning about the human body…. or do they? Nutrition is not taught in med school. That’s pretty critical in knowing how the human body functions. Knowledge of minerals is also very important. They don’t learn that. Immunology... nope. A couple examples... An ER doctor misdiagnosed a pain I had. He wasn’t even close with the body part involved. You know who pegged it? An acupuncturist. You know what helped? Restoring minerals, silica and acupuncture.

My first memory of a doctor was having a rash on the inside of my legs cauterized. The other day I described it as torture. I don’t hold that against my Mum. She did what the doctor told her to do, and she believed he was doing what was needed. I remember being a little girl lying on that uncomfortable table with my legs in the air while this man burned and scarred the inside of my legs. I remember the sticker they gave me when he was done like that was some kind of comfort. I remember those giant tears welling up in my eyes. I remember my Mum’s face looking troubled to see me in pain and scared. I remember her love as she put her arm around me as we left. I mean it did get rid of those painful bumps. Stop… think about that. Does this sound like HEALTHcare? My issues have always presented through my skin. A couple weeks ago I was talking to this lovely homeopath, just because she is a bright light in my facebook feed. Coincidentally the rash, which I have come to know is viral, has flared. See most of our illnesses circle back to viral load. I didn’t even have to spend six figures and years upon years of my life learning that. I asked her if there was a cream or something to help with the pain. She told me to keep in mind that when we see rashes, we need to be thinking about the blood. DING DING DING!!!!

Why am I telling you this? When I was a child and endured several of those appointments, there was no course of treatment that had anything to do with me having a virus or even looking for a virus. That pattern repeated several times in my life. My skin things were treated from the outside and no doctor EVER did anything to address viral or fungal issues. SO MUCH MONEY down the drain for mistreatment. No doctor told me that my liver and kidneys were in need of a detox. This is basic freakin information. Just as a fever is a sign of our immune system fighting against something so are rashes, eczema, psoriasis, acne. They are all messages about what is going on inside of us. Treating a rash and not the cause is like putting duct tape over a nail in your tire. Eventually the tire is going to need repaired properly. Most  of us wait for the blowout to happen. Same with our body. The doctor isn’t hearing those warning signs. You are. Respond to them. Learn about nutrition. Learn about supportive herbs. Learn that health is found outside our healthcare system. There are a few things they do well, but sickness doesn’t happen to be one of them.

I have worse stories about doctors maybe for another time. Circling back… why do we worship them and treat people who provide fuel for your body like second class citizens? There is no question left in my mind that our healthcare system has become a religious institution. I am not the first to go public with that thought. We have been trained into thinking our health answers come from them when what they are taught is how to medicate symptoms. They are never taught to look for the roots. What happens when you trim poison ivy? It comes back right? The only way to get rid of poison ivy is to pull it up from the roots. Well the only way to be healthy is to dig for the roots to your issues. Surgery and medicine may help for a little while, but whatever poison, which will be a combination of emotional and physical wounds, is inside and will pop back up again. Thing is our healthcare system is the third leading cause of death in our country. Over 700 people EVERY DAY will die at their hands. The top two causes are heart disease and cancer. Well if our almighty doctors knew jack about nutrition to advise us on health, those first numbers would not be so high. If cancer and heart disease were treated with nutrition and more natural means, not as many people would lose their lives. So in my mind, our health care system is the SECOND leading cause of death in our country. The first, in my humble opinion, are the carcinogens we are exposed to regularly which are aiding in stripping our immunity, like rust in a machine. Corporations are not held to health standards and that is something that must change if we want to live.

The way people say “My doctor said” sounds like gospel. You are responsible for your body. Look at them as coaches, not Gods. Until our healthcare and its educational system are not run by pharmaceutical companies which started in the early 1900s, it is wise to seek wisdom from practitioners your insurance will not cover when taking actions for your health. Functional doctors have FAR more wisdom than your average white coat. Nutritionists are really helpful. There are lots of different kinds of practitioners who are of real value. I am not saying all doctors are bad people; however those trained by the for-profit system simply do not have a broad understanding of the roots of illness so they are limited by their training. 

Annnnd the next time you find yourself impatient because you waited too long to eat, swallow your rage and be kind to that person who is providing or selling you your fuel for the day. Thank them. Bless your food. Reiki your food if you have that skill. 

I cannot for the life of me understand how we have been so indoctrinated into thinking an industry that kills over 250,000 AMERICANS EVERY YEAR can be trusted wholeheartedly, yet some will verbally rip us to shreds if we forget the lettuce on a sandwich. Hero worship because we have been TRAINED to over-value degrees and bank accounts and undervalue common sense and soul purpose.