How We Got Here:
WARNING: This entry will only make sense if you’ve read Part 1, which is available on this site as well.
( Part 2 of 3)
“Peace has cost you your strength. Victory has defeated you”
Bane – The Dark Knight Rises
Our country’s history of economic wins, has set us up for health failures. We live lives of modern convenience. Everything delivered. NOW. The world’s info in our pockets. We don’t move our bodies very much anymore. We’re not up at dawn, farming, because we don’t have to. We don’t lift heavy things, because we don’t have to. We don’t take a lot of steps, because we don’t have to. We don’t get the heartrate up too often. We’re sitting in front of computers and screens most of the day, getting stressed out by demanding people who seem to not know the accurate meaning of the word “need.” That’s just the adults.
We have kids that are more obese at younger age; starting off life behind the health 8 ball. Our children have an obesity rate of 18.5%, and climbing ( Worse for our Hispanic & Black children at 25.8% and 22 %, respectively). They’re also in front of screens more and eating poorly. Their school lunches are void of nutrition and carb-heavy. Physical Education is garbage-time vs. focused attention on how and why to move the body ( if the school has a PE class at all).
Our over-abundant lifestyles coupled with our feelings that we deserve even more abundance, have us ill positioned to fight this pandemic. Instead of taking corrective actions of social distancing and wearing masks, we’re doing it the American Way… we’re hoping medicine can save us, and we’ll spend the next 4 generation’s yet-to-be earned money to do it. With some luck and ingenuity we’ve pushed through vaccine trials at an unprecedented rate of speed ( Through the deftly named, Operation Warp Speed program authorized via the Trump Administration), again in hopes that there will be another miracle drug to save us from ourselves. Why not? We take a pill for everything else that ails us. Then we’ll eat and drink our sorrows away and hope there’s a pill that will make that all better. Instead of owning what’s going on, we change the lexicon and call the drugs, Netflix binging, comfort food and booze – Self-care.
It’s easy to blame the population and our choice of short-term gratification through food, booze, etc. That’s NOT the whole story though. In reality, it’s not the populace, the Government, a specific company, or person. It’s a long-winding list of decisions that have created a healthcare system that is the largest business in the US. It is 18% of our GDP. If Medicare were a company, it would be the largest in the World at $1 Trillion. One Third of the entire US Federal Budget is for Medicare. Our Health system where no one knows the price of what they’re about to be charged. Whether the many coded procedures are necessary or not. Whether the drug about to be prescribed is $200 for a week’s supply. A system that has made health related costs the leading cause of bankruptcy. Half of the country has $300 or less in savings, can you see the problem? The “do no harm” part of the medical oath need not apply to the patient’s finances.
How does a system where a Doctor gets 15 minutes with a patient, result in drug treatment for 75% of those visits? Doesn’t that seem like a high percentage of prescription drug interventions when you barely know someone? And now under the current Health Insurance model, there’s no time for the Healthcare Provider to provide real counsel. The Health Insurer/Payer, knows that they will be paying for the patient for on average, 3-4 years, so there’s no real incentive to get them healthy and drive down costs. They have no skin in the game. What if the patient doesn’t actually need 5 medications? What if they really need someone to help them with addictions to food and help with the mental rigors of a long-term lifestyle change?
At it’s root, we have an expensive and bloated healthcare system that doesn’t deliver health. We continue to put faith and endless amounts of money into “Medicine” that has clearly failed us.
There’s also no getting around the predatory nature of our food environment. The Standard American Diet ( affectionately known as SAD) is highly processed, full of saturated fats, industrial seed oils, carbohydrates and devoid of fiber i.e. NOT fruits, vegetables, and whole foods. This environment and the financial interest of Food companies have made it difficult to know the truth about what we’re putting in our mouths. When the largest producer of sugary drinks in the World, Coca-Cola, funds studies and pays scientists to say “all calories are the same”, we end up with big problems. Our foods and drinks are pumped full of fructose which light up the reward centers of our brains, and we get addicted. Then, our dopamine receptors down regulate, making a higher dose of the sugar to create the same sensation…just like a drug. Food, like any other addiction, becomes an uncontrollable behavior. Addiction is the business model. Food scientists know this, and their corporate overlords are counting on it. “Bet you can’t eat just one” isn’t just a clever tagline.
The foods that create this addiction and are staples of the SAD are cheap and convenient. They end up in the hands of the poorest of our population, who don’t have the time or the money to have preventative primary care, and it’s making them sick and costing us our present and future. While putting a particular food in your mouth is a choice, when your environment and finances only allow poor options, it’s impossible to put all of the blame on a person or group. A person doesn’t have to join a gang because they grew up in East L.A., but if their family is in a gang, and their entire community is a gang, it makes it easy to see how it might happen. We have a similar situation with our food environment.
The projections for our health and finances are not pretty if we continue down this path. We have to change, and now. We have to do it with individual choices, legislation, and give our future generations a fighting chance when the next plagues arrive.
Andrew L Hamilton 