120. the system is broken
According to a John’s Hopkins study, the number one cause of death in the U.S. is heart disease, followed by cancer, and then death from medical interventions - either through misdiagnosis in treatment or negligence. In other words you’re more likely to die from going to the doctor in some cases than if you didn’t at all. In some respects, the allopathic medical model is phenomenal, but where it excels in some areas, it falls short in others. We have the ability to transplant a heart into someone else’s body, but we don’t have the know how to keep a heart healthy within a single person. It’s amazing as it is asinine.
We are the most technologically advanced society we know of, and the best advice we have against an infectious disease is wearing a thing piece of fabric across our face and stay away from that other person doing the same. We think we are so evolved, but we’re lost when it comes to the fundamentals of health.
We’ve been hearing the same thing for the last 7 months now — “wear a mask, and social distance” — instead of any real advice about how to actually improve your health. The problem, and the reason the conversation hasn’t shifted is because the system isn’t constructed to focus on the things that matter most. The medical system is good at majoring at the minor things. The CDC published a report saying only 6% of those ~200k that died didn’t have a chronic disease, the other 94% who died had an average of two or more chronic diseases. How the fuck are these people alive already? You would think we wouldn’t need a pandemic to come to the realization that the ways we are continuously told to bolster our health aren’t worth listening to.
The system has mastered the art of missing the point. Perhaps these people wouldn’t have died if they didn’t get the C O V I D, but if we had a system focused on taking care of your health vs. taking care of your sickness, one that was based in the fundamental principles of health — eating well, sleeping well, moving well — then the outcome of this scenario would likely be significantly different. Instead, we’re left waiting in a socially distanced line for a vaccine with a mask that really does fuck all for anyone’s overall health and wellness.
What has this pandemic taught you about “healthcare” system?