Health Care: Adressing the Root Causes of Poor Health

[raja]

Wall Street Journal article here

"Rather than increase government spending and control, we need to address the root causes of poor health. This begins with the realization that every American adult is responsible for his or her own health.

"Unfortunately many of our health-care problems are self-inflicted: two-thirds of Americans are now overweight and one-third are obese. Most of the diseases that kill us and account for about 70% of all health-care spending—heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and obesity—are mostly preventable through proper diet, exercise, not smoking, minimal alcohol consumption and other healthy lifestyle choices.

"Recent scientific and medical evidence shows that a diet consisting of foods that are plant-based, nutrient dense and low-fat will help prevent and often reverse most degenerative diseases that kill us and are expensive to treat. We should be able to live largely disease-free lives until we are well into our 90s and even past 100 years of age.

[dummass]

Re: Health Care: Adressing the Root Causes of Poor Health

I like to compare my food purchases to others in the checkout line.

As a general rule, if one can readily identify the items (potato, banana, egg, chicken leg...) as those that are found in nature, you will be healthier eating them. This is an oversimplification, of course, but if you look at what others are buying (boxes and bags of processed crap, with a list of ingredients that you'll stain your eyes reading) it makes buying healthy food a lot easier.

I read somewhere, that you can easily avoid the most unhealthy foods by not buying those items that are advertised.

[lurker]

Re: Health Care: Adressing the Root Causes of Poor Health

We need both.

We need to take better care of ourselves: be more responsible for our own health.

AND

We need a functional healthcare system. Ideally single payer 100% coverage from birth until death, but I'd settle for adding a government "insurance" plan to the existing system to keep the for-profit insurers honest. The first thing I'd do is make direct-to-consumer health advertising illegal. I want my doctor to prescribe what's best for me based on detailed consultation, not some infomercial.

But, of course, the WSJ could never insult their corporatist masters by insinuating that the health insurance companies, doctors, and big pharma are gouging american consumers.

[don]

Re: Health Care: Adressing the Root Causes of Poor Health

We need both.

We need to take better care of ourselves: be more responsible for our own health.

AND

We need a functional healthcare system. Ideally single payer 100% coverage from birth until death, but I'd settle for adding a government "insurance" plan to the existing system to keep the for-profit insurers honest. The first thing I'd do is make direct-to-consumer health advertising illegal. I want my doctor to prescribe what's best for me based on detailed consultation, not some infomercial.

But, of course, the WSJ could never insult their corporatist masters by insinuating that the health insurance companies, doctors, and big pharma are gouging american consumers.

The elephant in the parlor for prevention is the completely ignored industrial pollutants in our water, air, etc. There is a virtual news blackout on these issues in the Journal and elsewhere. Cancer rates either remain unchanged or climb, especially in exotic cancers becoming more commonplace. Treatment has seen significant improvement but that's where the money is, isn't it. Real prevention steps on corporate toes rather quickly. Exercise and eating sensibly all helps but....

[flintlock]

Re: Health Care: Adressing the Root Causes of Poor Health

Yep, the toxic crap we breath, eat , and drink is bound to have an impact.

But one thing I should mention. People live longer now. Something is bound to kill us eventually. We have 80 year olds still alive having lived with heart disease for 20 years since it was detected. I think some of the higher incidences of cancer, strokes, and heart disease may simply be a result of living long enough to get them. The reduction of infectious disease as a killer is huge in our generation. It will also prove our undoing, as the weak are no longer weeded out. We think health care costs are bad now, just wait a century.