Putting the care back into healthcare
There is a lot of discussion and strike action around our national health services. Talk about fair pay, conditions and retention of staff, lack of funding and resources - here in France we’re talking about ‘medical deserts’ and in the UK the systems is pretty much 'broke'.
What I am not hearing is how we can make our healthcare system more people-centred and less biomedical for chronic conditions. Somewhere along the journey of healthcare provision we have became more focused on treatment of illness rather than healthcare itself. We seem to have forgotten the ‘prevention' aspect - so today I’m asking the question - why isn’t the modern medicine system supporting us as much to take care of ourselves - and I don’t mean diagnosing and analysing us for sickness.
In my experience as an integrative practitioner, there are windows of opportunity to reverse illness and poor health before it becomes so chronic that the only choices we are left with are biomedical - surgery (for chronic pain) or pills for life - both of which can create more pain and suffering down the line. I say this because it is not controversial to state that we are more than the sum of our symptoms.
Simple, natural and cheap things can be done to ensure good health and well-being throughout our life and especially in times of high stress, burnout or trauma-related chronic disease. There are so many ways we can learn to take better care of ourselves - relieving the pressure on an overburdened system and all the stress and suffering that this causes for both patients and healthcare professionals.
There are enough studies out there that connect the dots between how we live, our emotions, our mental state, the quality of our energy and ability to rest and our environment and yet, we continue down the route of prescribing a ‘pill for every ill’.
Why are we not trying more alternative and integrative ways to get ourselves back into balance so our body re-calibrates and regulates naturally? After all, we are designed to do exactly that. Here's ONE great and simple example:
A recent meta-analysis study from Italy published earlier this year states conclusively (and by the way research papers are rarely so bold):
the positive results highlighted again and now validated by TSAs suggest that an indisputable association between vitamin D supplementation and the protective effect on ICU (Intensive Care Unit) admission can be considered definitive evidence
So basically, a simple and cheap to provide vitamin D supplement will boost our immune systems enough to prevent the need for admission to intensive care (and potentially death) following illness from a covid infection.
So, you'd think the global and national health authorities would be jumping all over this and rolling out a worldwide vitamin D booster programme for everyone ahead of this coming winter.?
Why are less effective and more expensive options still being pushed upon us - at a time where most Western health systems are broken. Surely, this is a cheap and simple way to get us all healthy and stop the burden on hospitals - not to mention limit the suffering caused. Where are the posters in the doctor surgeries and pharmacies and mainstream media encouraging us to get our vit D levels checked and boosted with supplements, information about how to safely spend time in the sunshine and how to enrich your diet? This would save the governments money and release those ICU beds for other types of sickness and need.
The further we are from our innate and natural abilities to take care of ourselves the more dependent we become on external professionals and treatments to us. And we are seeing just how precarious and incoherent that system is. Of course, there are vested interests in ensuring that this remains the case because, let’s be honest, there’s far less money to be made if we all become very good at taking care of ourselves - but it also means, in a collective sense, that the money we pay into our system can go to those who really need it. What's the downside? We absolutely need a functioning and healthy health system - and it's what we pay for with our taxes. So let's start asking for what we really need - to be listened to, to be supported, to be have positive options that are not just pharmacological and to have transparency of information.
When we lose our connection to ourselves we become less able to discern what we need and we hand our power over. In my experience with chronic illness, no-one knows better than you…what it is you need to heal. So I encourage you to re-connect with your own power and perception and start making the right choices for you today. The information is there - dig a little and start connecting with ways in which you can take care of yourself because energy follows thought - and how we think and act matters.
Italy Study published January 2023: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8247/16/1/130