The Centralized Sickcare System
TLDR - The centralized healthcare system is not designed to fix problems and instead helps you die slower with band aid solutions.
Expanded
In my opinion, healthcare should focus on the most high impact interventions to restore a person to homeostasis. The centralized system does not do this and instead focuses on down stream band aids. Many factors contribute to this issue and below are a few examples:
Siloed Specialties: Centralized healthcare providers typically work in silos, each focusing on their specific specialty without considering the body holistically. This fragmented approach can lead to treatments that address symptoms rather than underlying causes. You may encounter a specialist who recommends a treatment that benefits their area of expertise but negatively impacts another aspect of your health because they don't consider the big picture. For example, a gastroenterologist might prescribe an acid reducer like a PPI or H2 blocker to manage GERD. However, this can decrease calcium absorption, leading to weakened bones, and interfere with the absorption of other essential nutrients, causing a wide range of issues.
Fortunately there are integrative providers who take a more holistic view on the body. Unfortunately these options are not usually covered by insurance as they are considered a "higher level of care."
Profit Driven Model: The centralized healthcare system is designed to generate revenue. If patients are cured, there is a loss of ongoing revenue. This creates a financial disincentive to cure patients, as the industry benefits more from long term treatments that manage symptoms rather than addressing root causes.
This includes the hospital themselves, big pharma, insurance companies, medical device manufacturers, medical supplies, PBMs, electronic health record companies and the list goes on. All of these areas are trying to make money. This takes away from the original goal of providing care to the patient.
Education and Training: Most healthcare workers genuinely want the best for their patients and aim to help them heal. However, they can only apply what they have been taught. The healthcare education system is often funded by groups that profit from treating sick people, leading to a curriculum that promotes treatments generating revenue. This means you may receive advice from your provider that isn't the best for your health. Not because they are intentionally trying to harm you, but because their education focuses on a profit driven approach (medications) rather than a “get the patient healthy so they don't have to come back” approach.
Provider Ego: Many centralized doctors are highly intelligent and have undergone lengthy and difficult training. Society often refers to them as the smartest people in the room. This can lead to a reluctance to consider alternative viewpoints or patient suggestions, as it may challenge their perceived expertise. This causes a concerning combination of providers potentially learning “bad” information, and on top of that, their egos prevent them from being open to alternative approaches.
When I say “bad” information, I refer to inefficient approaches that focus on medication and making profit opposed to getting the patient back to homeostasis like my foundational items outline.
Outdated Curriculum: Medical knowledge is exponentially growing. Providers are commonly told that “half of what you'll learn in medical school will be shown to be either dead wrong or out of date within five years of your graduation.” Some alternative medicine providers believe this figure is closer to 99%. This highlights the importance of continuous learning and collaboration between providers and patients. With the exponential growth of medical information, especially via the internet, doctors who graduated 10 years ago may not be familiar with much of the new knowledge. While there are continuing education requirements, it is impossible to keep up with everything. If a provider is unwilling to collaborate, they may not be the best choice for managing your health.
Old Foundation: An analogy for our centralized medical system is an old house that was built on a foundation that used the best materials known at the time. 30 years later you want to build an extension and the old foundation might not support it. There have also been many developments since then and there are much better ways to build a stronger foundation. For our analogy, our current centralized healthcare system was constructed on an outdated foundation. Over time we learned new and better information about health. If we had the opportunity to rebuild the foundation, we would approach many aspects of healthcare differently. Unfortunately, the centralized system continues to build on that old foundation, rather than starting from scratch with the most current and effective information to truly heal people.
Big Pharma's Influence: The pharmaceutical industry is a significant player in the healthcare system, driven by the need to generate profits for shareholders. This profit motive can lead to prioritizing revenue over patient health. Pharmaceutical companies may push for the use of medications that generate ongoing revenue rather than those that offer curative solutions.
This is similar for all the other revenue generating areas of healthcare. Each specialty wants to use latest and greatest technology that is the most expensive and will generate the best profits. Sometimes this truly is the best route to go, but in many instances it is not needed.
Impact of Insurance Companies: Insurance companies play a crucial role in determining the type of care patients receive. Their primary goal is to maximize profits, which can lead to decisions that do not always align with the best interests of the patient. Insurance companies often cover pharmaceuticals but not supplements or holistic treatments. For example, they may cover specific allergy medication to block histamine, but not OTC options or a DAO enzyme that breaks down histamine more naturally. This focus on pharmaceuticals over natural or holistic options also limits patient access to potentially more effective and less harmful treatments.
Hospitals Impact on Mitochondria: The design of modern hospitals can also have significant negative health impacts on patients. One major issue is the use of artificial lighting, which prevents patients from experiencing the full spectrum of natural light. This disruption weakens their circadian rhythm, making it harder for their bodily processes to function at the right times. Additionally, hospitals are filled with high tech equipment that emits extremely high levels of electromagnetic fields. These EMFs can further disrupt circadian rhythms and weaken mitochondria. By exposing sick patients to circadian rhythm disruption and weakened mitochondrial function, the hospital environment inadvertently slows their recovery process.
We are placing sick patients in an environment that makes it much more difficult to maintain a strong body battery and keep their internal processes moving at the right times.
The Centralized System isn’t All Bad
Centralized acute medicine that treats broken bones, poisons, overdoses, surgeries and other emergency life threatening conditions is unbeatable in its ability to provide immediate, high quality care. Emergency rooms are equipped with advanced technology and staffed by highly trained professionals who can quickly diagnose and treat acute medical issues, often saving lives in the process. While the centralized healthcare system may fall short in managing long term health and chronic conditions, its effectiveness in handling acute medical emergencies is unmatched.