unpopular opinion: your health experts know nothing
What we know as the classical “healthcare” system has devolved into little more than disease management, where the suppression of symptoms leads to the best health outcomes, but nothing could be further from the truth. If anyone actually took the time to “follow the science” instead of blindly repeating it, they would realize recommendations from the trusted mainstream sources have not made us any healthier over the last 50 years.
Don’t believe me? Look at the skyrocket rates of obesity, diabetes, coronary issues, cancer, etc. — all of which are comorbidities associated with the increased severity of complications with covid. The surprising part is that “healthcare” system isn’t broken, it’s a very successful and effective venue for disease management, generating billions of dollars, and that’s the problem.
Healthy people don’t need medications, surgery, or hospital care. Allowing people to fuckabout, making lifestyle decisions that are in complete contradiction to our evolutionary biology has failed to serve us, but has served the bottom line of those who enable our poor lifestyle choices, that lead to our poor health outcomes, that lead to us seeking assistance from the “experts” whose only advice comes by way of offering this or that medication to mask the fact that we aren’t living in accordance to our natural way of life.
I work with a lot of people who have issues — like high blood sugar, high cholesterol, poor sleep, obesity — that their “healthcare” practitioner could very easily have helped with if they could simple step out of the false paradigm that allopathic medicine is the best way to solve a health issue. Instead of complex pathways and medications, we need to start thinking about simple recommendations revolving around eating better, going outside to get some sun, getting enough sleep. These things are rarely addressed, yet are the very foundations of health.
Don’t believe me? Did you ever hear anyone on the News over the last 2 years recommend any of these very simple, free, and effective things? Likely not. What is recommended, are medications or pharmaceutical interventions, which — as any student of history can see — has proven to be a very poor path to achieving or recapturing any semblance of real health.
Personally, I think the future of health, both how to recapture and how to optimize it, lies not with the recommendations of those who are deeply entrenched within the “healthcare” industry, but those who understand the natural world and how we evolved from it. Not one time in human history have we ever been deficient in a pharmaceutical drug, yet just about everyone in the Western world is deficient in something because they lack a natural connection to their environment — real food, natural sunlight, restful sleep, and meaningful relationships are the way to health. None of these foundational things are espoused by the establish “healthcare” experts, so when do we start listening to someone else? In my opinion, the future of achieving health and optimizing longevity lies literally outside the walls of modern medicine and within the natural environment we can all stand to benefit from returning to.
Be careful who you listen to. Sick people make great customers.
health = freedom
We generally don’t take action without good reason, but if the current climate isn’t enough to call yourself into action what is? It is hard to think that it’s almost been “years” of this nonsense without any tangible methods being implemented to positively change the status quo.
Regardless of your beliefs about why the world is in a state of panic, the unfolding events have presented us with an opportunity to see things differently. Hopefully, it has allowed us to recognize that the way we’ve been persuaded to think, the way we’ve been told to see each other, and the way we’ve been informed to take care of our bodies, has come from a place of fear. We’re scared into lesser versions of ourselves, and therefore our communities, because it has been the most consistent and loudest message.
None of us enjoy this constant state of inequity, poor health, strife, yet we continue to sit back and wait for things to change for the better without the realization that ultimately it all starts with you and I. Everything starts with the collective Us. We need to come together to redefine what it means to live a life of our choosing built upon a foundation of health that provides us the freedom to pass through this life with relative ease.
We have to envision a society where true health is a fundamental part of society. Despite what we are seeing right now. Despite what we are hearing right now. It is possible.
Taking personal responsibility for our health needs to be the rule, not the exception. This isn’t a call for mask wearing and vaccinations, it is far more fundamental than that. This is a call to take personal responsibility for the health of your body and the inputs you provide it. What you put in, is what you get out. And as a society we are failing miserably. In the US, about 90% of our citizens are metabolically unhealthy, which means there’s around 10% of our population that has enough knowledge, or luck, to provide their body with the correct inputs to achieve a level of health that allows them to approach the current state of the world with confidence. Imagine if it were all different. Imagine if the majority weren’t beholden to the consistent need of refilling medications, scheduling treatments for their ailing bodies, or settling into a lives of dis-comfort as if it were somehow preordained. Do you think the world would be more free?
It doesn’t make sense. And this acquiescence to the status quo of suboptimal health is the driving force behind the crisis we’re all in. It is firstly an epidemic of poor health that has provided the necessary fuel to ignite a pandemic of the immunocompromised.
Collectively, we need to take responsibility to elevate our potential, not succumb to the idea that the majority of this country — and the industrialized world, for that matter — had it correct when it came to the best way to live our life. Achieving real health is no longer a fundamental part. Somewhere along the line it was drowned out by the voices selling us on the idea that it was best to do whatever it takes to get rich, gain more followers, and enjoy a hedonistic lifestyle without the thought of consequences. But none of us can realistically trade our health for wealth because if we do, we end up having to trade back our wealth for a chance to recoup whatever health we have left.
In a recent presentation, I asked those in attendance — mostly wealthy executive types — to define health. Most of them simply came up with “the absence of disease.” That’s sad. People think that health is simply not being sick. While that does play a part, it is unfortunate to think that this is the best that they could come up with because the absence of disease doesn’t mean you are able to live your best life. Not that I am a fan, but the World Health Organization (WHO) presents a more holistic view as it defines health as the state of “complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease.” This is definitely a step in the right direction but still doesn’t fully encapsulate everything we should strive for.
In my opinion, health is best defined as an optimal state of bodily movement and function, as well as emotional and physiological well-being, which inspires confidence to pursue a life of our choosing, free from limitations of dis-ease and dis-comfort, that ultimately provides us with the freedom to live the life we want. When we are faced with a choice of what to do, we need to keep this definition in mind. We need to ask, are my choices in line with the fundamental pursuit of achieving optimal health? If not, then we’re ultimately resigning our health over to companies, and governments, that are more than happy to take advantage of our lack of foundational health, who stand to profit off the false promise that by taking this pill or completing that procedure we will be able to live a life free from the responsibility of our poor choices. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. Our actions have consequences.
It is very difficult to achieve health within the same paradigm that made you unwell to begin with. It’s time to think different. It’s time to be different. It’s time to throw off the anxiety we have about the changes we need to make and simply do it. Get healthy. Be free.
212. double punishment
Our collective narrative — the stories passed down through generations to help the next succeed — has become lost amid a rapidly advancing world. No longer can we agree on a path forward, as a result, our health suffers. All this stems from a profiteering medical system that seeks to “better” humanity by further disconnecting us from our natural past, and what gave us the strength and vitality to thrive up to this point, instead creating greater discord within our body.
We’ve been misled in thinking that there is no knowledge to be drawn from our past that can improve our health, when everything in life, and especially science, has been built upon the foundation that came before it. What works sticks, what doesn’t sloughs off. Now we are led to believe that the best way to capture health is NOT to look back to what gave us strength and vitality in the past, but to look forward to what science can manifest. That medicine has the power to save us from ourselves, if only we take this or cut that out. All the while we casually walk down the path of double punishment, losing who we are, along with the health we are trying to reclaim.
167. messages of fear
The voice of the media has usurped science over the past year. There seems to be a concerted effort to take over the global narrative, constructing it in such a way as to limit its authorship to a select few who seek to control the human experience through messages of fear. However, this is nothing new.
Since the Vietnam era we’ve been subjected to a narrative that has amped up fear and danger in the minds of the public. Subsequently, our culture, built upon fear, provides little room for the masses to give a true examination of the motives behind the message we continue to hear.
Without introspection we become susceptible to the “run for your life” narrative being espoused. Fearful, most of us act on those messages with little thought, going along with the directives seen on television or social media. All the while, this focus on keeping us safe has never made us safer, nor healthier, but has seen a creeping degradation of both our civil liberties and overall health.
If anything, COVID has become a supreme example of how the mechanism of fear can be used against a diverse population, to homogenize their diverse backgrounds, ideas, experiences, and belief systems into a narrow response that doesn’t serve our collective wellbeing. At what point do we overcome the fear based narrative and begin to collectively question the system that continues to fail us.
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.
76. salutogenesis
What are the origins of health? Aaron Antonovsky sought to answer that question in his 1979 book entitled Health, Stress and Coping. In it, he introduced the term salutogenesis, which places emphasis on the elements that promote health, rather than the factors that strip it away and cause disease (a.k.a. pathogenesis). It’s a radical departure from the “pill for every ill” ideology we’ve all become accustomed to in the traditional healthcare model. Much like myself, Antonovsky rejected the theories of the “traditional medical-model dichotomy separating health and illness” and instead figured that one can only exist in the absence of another.
Today, more than ever, the majority of people seem to only be worried about not getting sick, rather than taking actions to optimize health. Unfortunately, if you continue to think this way, it’s important to understand the fundamental truth that you’re never going to be able to get healthy by doing the same things that made you susceptible to poor health to begin with. Perhaps, it’s the hypnotic narrative of fear perpetuated by daily body counts on the “News” that keeps you holding on to the current medical model. Yet, it is not your savior and it was never designed to make you well to being with. It’s time to start to think differently. The origins of health aren’t rooted in medications or vaccinations, they come from making the right decisions that work for you and your biology.
To illustrate the fundamental difference between the current pathogenetic medical model and the idea of salutogenetic model, let me ask you this. Say, your friend entrusts you to take care of their plant while away on vacation. While they’re gone, you see the leaves starting to turn brown. What do you do? You can paint those leaves green, or you can give the plant what it needs? (Here’s a hint, it’s not electrolytes!) I’m assuming, that since it’s not 2505, your first thought is to give the plant water. The browning of the leaves is a symptom of something not right with the plants biology. Painting the leaves green is akin to taking medication to “solve” the problem, yet only serves to mask the symptom.
Taking the analogy further, think of yourself as the plant. Are you giving yourself the proper things you need to thrive? Do you know what they are? Or do you wait until things start to breakdown, and then search for medications to suppress they symptoms of your faulty lifestyle? This isn’t meant to be harsh so much as eye-opening. Remember, I can’t make you change unless you want to.
You came into this world with only one responsibility, and that was to take care of yourself. Somewhere along the line, most of us surrender our power to a system that seeks profit over health, that manipulates our understanding of what health is, how it’s achieved, and maintained. Staying within this mindset keeps us looking in the wrong direction. We are continuously looking forward in time for the latest medication or vaccination to save us. It’s a faulty and dangerous premise. Instead, we need to look backward to the past, to see what made us strong enough to prevail thousands of years to get to this point where our health is crumbling. I’m a firm believer in the salutogentic model of health as it seeks to define the origins of health. Those origins fall directly in line with the ancestral approach I have successfully applied with my clients in the past, and will continue to use it with anyone who wishes to break free from the tragic paradigm that is the modern “healthcare” system. It’s time to change the way we think. Sometimes a step backwards can be a step in the right direction.
74. xyz
On a scale from 1 to 10, how well do you understand how zippers work? …. Okay, next question. How does a zipper work? Describe in as much detail as you can, all the steps involved in a zipper’s operation. If you’re like most people, you don’t work in a zipper factory and have little to say in response to the second question. You don’t really know how zippers work. So, here’s another question, on the same 1 to 10 scale, please rate your knowledge on how a zipper works again. I’m assuming it’s less than your first answer.
Why do we assume a higher level of knowledge? Well, the simplest answer to that question is it’s the easiest and most energy efficient way to go about our day. If we had to know all the inner-workings of everything we encountered to get through our day, we would never make it past cooking breakfast without wanting to go back to bed. It’s not a bad thing to have so little detailed knowledge about how things work. For the most part, it’s necessary. We learn from previous experiences we’ve had an apply that going forward without having to apply additional thought. This allows us to focus on only what we need, while filtering everything else out.
The problem comes when people start speaking or spreading information as though they they worked in our proverbial zipper factory, without actually ever stepping foot in one. Unfortunately, just because someone reads a post about YKK, doesn’t make them an expert on the subject. Just because someone can regurgitate facts, doesn’t make them capable of putting concepts together across genres, in an effort to deliver a broader picture. Just because someone prefers a zipper, doesn’t mean it’s better than a button It may just be that prefer the zipper because they can’t figure out how to use a button.
The world we live in is driven by emotion and fueled by abstract bits of information woven into a narrative to justify that feeling. In an effort to simplify the message, the complexity of details gets lost as conflicting narratives emerge. If you don’t work in the “factory,” it’s very easy to become susceptible to people who seem like they do, and say things you like hearing. We all want the best advice possible, but with no real understanding about how the “factory” is working, how can you really discern whether it’s information or misinformation used to further a narrative.
It should seem alarming that everyone is now an expert in the health field and has “facts” to back it up, yet, these people have no real concept of health or how to achieve it. It’s fucking dangerous in more ways than one because these are the people whose voice is often the loudest. We all have our areas of expertise, but on most subjects (specifically health), the majority of people only dive deep enough to string together shallow bits of information, while in reality what we know is little more than a feeling of understanding that we really can’t unpack. Attaining real knowledge is hard work, that is why most people just rearrange their prejudices and call it learning.
73. wtfru waiting for
Most peoples health is so poor that they don’t have the energy to take care of themselves in order to meet the very basics of what it takes to achieve a foundational level of health. This is why the medical system is so profitable. They prey on the weak — both in mind and body. But, it’s more important than ever to understand that it’s not a medical system. It’s a disease maintenance system designed to make money through the suppression of symptoms, not the elimination of disease by an accumulation of health. It’s a system that doesn’t make money when people are getting better.
Why don’t you hear about the value of sleeping well, mitigating stress, improving digestion and detoxification pathways, optimizing nutrition, and finding activities you enjoy that influence you to move on a daily basis? Because their bottom line is more important. There is no cohesive message because if there were, people would start to develop a baseline level of health and profits would decline. It’s a fucking racket. Everyone needs to take responsibility for their health. Unfortunately, it takes energy for people to invest the time to change, as well as forcing them to acknowledge that most of the “information” they’ve been trained to see as truth is not serving them, but those they seek for service.
In the current climate, a strong foundation of health is more powerful than any intervention or government mandate — whether it be masks, closures, or social distancing. The latest CDC data — as of August 26, 2020 — shows that only 6% of people died FROM Covid-19, whereas 94% died WITH Covid-19. What that basically means, is that if you treat your body well and are a healthy individual, then you really don’t have much to worry about. That is an important distinction, and really illustrates the crux of what I am getting at with all my bluster. On the other hand, if you treat your body like a used condom like the majority of this country, then YES you are at risk, but hopefully you’re coming to the understanding that your risk isn’t due to me wearing a mask or not. It’s because you CHOSE to live a lifestyle that isn’t conducive to optimal health.
Fortunately, all hope is not lost. If anything this situation should serve as an awakening for people to take responsibility for their health, and not rely on the disease management system. If done right, it can take as little as 3 months to completely change the direction in someones life for the better. But it’s up to you to make that move. So, if you want more life, vibrancy, health, safety, strength and energy, then what the fuck are you waiting for?
72. just a thought
Yesterday, through the introduction of a friend, I met someone for the first time. As she approached, I saw she was wearing a mask, so to be polite, I asked if she would like me to put my mask on so we could sit down and talk. “No, I don’t think it’s necessary.” I agreed, I didn’t think she needed her’s either, so she took her mask off and we proceeded to have a great conversation.
In the small community of people I interact with, I’ve found that none of them really care about the “safety procedures” of social distancing or the need to wear a mask. And to be honest, I’m fine with that because I don’t find the merit in doing so either. Before the Karen’s and Kevin’s jump down my throat because my mouth is exposed, let me explain myself.
Everyone I surround myself with is deeply entrenched in the health, fitness, research, nutrition, functional medicine, and the strength and conditioning world. They are not IG influencers searching for likes or part of the Dr. Oz tribe that likes to lead you down the yellow brick road of bullshit. These people are not average in anyway. They are the people you look for when you want to improve your health or get in shape because the government guidelines on health you’ve been following haven’t worked. They are people I respect, because they place their health as a top priority in their life. I’m assuming this is strange to hear as it sounds like some type of cognitive dissonance. They want to be healthy, yet they don’t follow the guidelines or wear a mask?!? GASP! They must be crazy, right?
No, they are not crazy. Nor do I think they are dangerous or careless. How could they be? They are the best at what they do and it shows. They, much like myself, stopped listening to the “wisdom” the government was shoveling in our direction many years ago, and it’s subsequently the reason why they have acquired the health they have. If these people aren’t worried about the biggest health crisis of our lifetime, maybe we should start to ask why, and take on some of their practices so that we can get on with life. Perhaps the “information” you’ve been hearing on the News isn’t the best advice to lockdown your health in these uncertain times. Just a thought.
70. covibesity
The News is full of information about how to not get sick, yet rarely provides any information regarding what you need to do to actually improve your health. Whether it’s due to sheer ignorance, or scare tactics meant to keep you tuned in, neither is helpful for creating a healthier and safer you. There needs to be more emphasis on the foundational things we can do to bolster our health.
A study entitled Individuals with obesity and COVID‐19: A global perspective on the epidemiology and biological relationships was recently published in the Journal of Obesity Reviews. It goes in to the affects of COVID-19 on those who are obese, stating that obesity increases the risk of death by nearly 50%! You would think with news like this, we would hear more about what can be done while we all sit at home and wait for a vaccine besides order take out and shelter in place.
Anyone who has been into a Wal-Mart lately will know that obesity problem may be just as large as the actual pandemic itself. The US has some of the highest obesity rates in the world, with the US government data showing more than 40% of Americans as obese with the trend rising. According to the World Health Organization, “obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally, with at least 2.8 million people dying each year as a result of being overweight or obese.”
Assuming there is a correlation, why isn’t this being talked about? Probably because it’s easier to sell you a vaccine than it is to ask you to change your lifestyle. Unfortunately, the study also mentioned the vaccines being developed to address the COVID-19 “will be less effective for individuals with obesity due to a weaker immune response.” And, don’t think that because you don’t consider yourself obese, you’re safe. Metabolic derangement can happen at any size and is the leading cause of obesity! The need to talk about the small things to improve health is becoming more and more important as time goes on. However, the we wait to gather this rather obvious information, the more at risk we become.
With poor health being endemic during this pandemic, what more do you need to hear to put your health first? There is no easy button for achieving better health. Not a vaccine. Not a mask. Not social distancing. Health is cumulative. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to reverse any damages done to your body, and with that will come an increase in your susceptibility to COVID19, as well as whatever else 2020 decides to throw at us. For better or worse, a lot of us were given months to get our priorities in line, to lose weight, improve our sleep habits, focus on a little bit of exercise, and reassess our lives. With the information that you can’t simply wait the virus out until a vaccine comes along, hopefully you can use the remainder of this gift of information and time to work on improving your lifestyle.
mask bullies
We all have a desire to belong. The tribe we gravitate toward dictates the rules of what is or isn’t acceptable for inclusion. Once we’ve found a place within a specific tribe, we’ll defend its narrative at all costs, as anything contrary will be seen as an attack on our personal identity.
Case in point… [watch the video]
We see Kramer marching for a good cause, but since he refuses to wear the r-r-r-ribbon, he is assaulted and ostracized from participating in the group. Why? Because he doesn’t fit within the narrative of the tribe he wishes to be a part of, regardless of his good intent.
The idea seems stupid when you watch it, but this very scenario is unfolding all across the country right now. The ribbon bullies have graduated to mask bullies and they’re at war with the exposed faces of those who refuse to wear a mask. One side preaches about safety and the other exclaims they just want their freedom.
Who’s right?
Neither, because any facts presented on the matter are no match for an individuals emotional investment, especially if it allows us to feel like we belong within a tribe. You can tell a mask bully that masks are ineffective, and they’ll discount it. Likewise, you can tell the exposed, your company policy requires them to wear a mask, and they’ll dismiss it.
Because facts don’t matter, and the only way to illicit change is to construct a new narrative, let me say the following…
We are only free if we can do things without a visible objective, without justification, and outside the dictatorship of someone else’s narrative, just as we are only truly safe as a species if we allow ourselves to be exposed to the stressors of volatility and randomness that promote health in an ever changing world.