How Health Care Will Change...very promising!

[creditcardfree]

"...discuss new ways of looking at optimal health and immunity in the face of this pandemic. In trying to better understand COVID-19, Dr. Bland went back to the basics of the immune system. He breaks down the processes at work, explains what the now often-heard phrase “cytokine storm” means, and talks about using food as medicine to promote immuno-rejuvenation. That means we’re not just supporting the current state of our immune system, we’re reviving it from the ground up. We talk about this and so much more on this week’s valuable episode. ⁣

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V20K4nUwO9Y&ab_channel=MarkHyman%2CMD

[kork13]

Apologies that I'm responding not having watch the video (just not a fan of the medium--prefer to read)... But I do agree that if our healthcare system were to place greater emphasis on supporting/maintaining immune health (and more broadly, preventative medicine in general) instead of predominantly managing/treating symptoms, we'd have a healthier population as a whole. However, much of that would require dramatic changes not only in healthcare, but American/global culture, acceptance of personal responsibility, and improved personal care.

[disneysteve]

much of that would require dramatic changes not only in healthcare, but American/global culture, acceptance of personal responsibility, and improved personal care.

Exactly. There's very little doctors and other health providers can actually do. I can tell people all day long to stop smoking, drink less, exercise regularly, eat healthy, and get enough sleep but hardly anyone listens. That's a big reason why I left primary care. I felt like I was just spinning my wheels day after day. I'd give the same advice to the same patients over and over and over and over for years but they didn't follow any of it. They just wanted me to give them a prescription to treat their back pain and knee pain and acid reflux and shortness of breath and every other self-induced symptom they had.

Now when there is that very rare patient who is actually ready to change, I'd be all over that. We know how to get people healthier and keep them healthier. We just need people actually motivated and interested in doing that. 99% of the population is not.

[creditcardfree]

Apologies that I'm responding not having watch the video (just not a fan of the medium--prefer to read)... But I do agree that if our healthcare system were to place greater emphasis on supporting/maintaining immune health (and more broadly, preventative medicine in general) instead of predominantly managing/treating symptoms, we'd have a healthier population as a whole. However, much of that would require dramatic changes not only in healthcare, but American/global culture, acceptance of personal responsibility, and improved personal care.

Get ready for big changes!! It's definitely worth the watch, can be sped up using the settings. I believe this event is an awakening to those that are not healthy at how susceptible they are to even more negative outcomes because of their health. Washing our hands and covering our mouths while important is just not enough to protect them. Pharm a shuts down information on Vitamins (like the role of Vitamin D, A and C) in helping an immune system. Big Ag shuts down the harms their chemical products do to our bodies (Roundup/glyphosate in our food is actually an antibiotic, and was proven to cause cancer in court recently). Our health agencies are in lock step with these big industries and are not looking out for our individual health and the harms these big industries are causing.

[disneysteve]

I believe this event is an awakening to those that are not healthy at how susceptible they are to even more negative outcomes because of their health.

I wish that were true but having worked in healthcare for 30 years, it's just not going to happen. Sure, a few people might see the light but just as with finances, 99% will keep doing what they've always done.

[creditcardfree]

Exactly. There's very little doctors and other health providers can actually do. I can tell people all day long to stop smoking, drink less, exercise regularly, eat healthy, and get enough sleep but hardly anyone listens. That's a big reason why I left primary care. I felt like I was just spinning my wheels day after day. I'd give the same advice to the same patients over and over and over and over for years but they didn't follow any of it. They just wanted me to give them a prescription to treat their back pain and knee pain and acid reflux and shortness of breath and every other self-induced symptom they had.

Now when there is that very rare patient who is actually ready to change, I'd be all over that. We know how to get people healthier and keep them healthier. We just need people actually motivated and interested in doing that. 99% of the population is not.

Doing the same thing over and over is the definition of insanity. That's why we need a new paradigm shift for health care, rather than sick care.

I think the main issue isn't that people don't want to change. I've been trying to get my doctors to help me on several things over the years with no good guidance, same for my sister. I had to learn and figure it out for myself. It's that the education of those things you listed are very vague. They all sound great, and they are very important, but we as a collective have failed to communicate exactly how and why all those things matter.

We, by way of Pharma and their education of doctors, have unfortunately trained our society that a pill solves everything. Look at all the ads on television. So, of course, they want the pill. Particularly, if they have had a pill in the past and it was a quick fix. What we are failing to tell people is that treating a symptom is only covering up the problem, it is not the root cause necessarily.

We have failed to explain that excess weight is a product of high insulin levels, not just calories in, and how to get those down by choosing foods that don't contain sugar or spike insulin and eating less often. Every time we eat insulin spikes. The more we can keep that down the better for weight. This is why fasting is starting to become popular because it works and once people are educated they are successful for the long term. It's also why and lifting weights helps with weight loss because it lowers insulin.

We have failed to explain, and test for optimal levels of Vitamins in the body. Vitamin D is a major player in immune function. So many people are deficient. The higher the levels the less susceptible one is to so many illnesses and chronic conditions. Supplementing with Vitamin D3 (with K2) during this entire pandemic would have been a better, and inexpensive solution for the population. This is in the medical literature! Why aren't we on a major campaign to turn the epidemic of low levels around? Doctors aren't aware of the optimal levels vs normal levels? Our drug industry is censoring this as a solution because they can't patent it?

I dropped a video in another thread on Vitamin D by this medical doctor in India which YouTube has now taken down, despite her 22 scientific medical references. Here is her website with information on the importance of Vitamin D. I don't know if all medical doctors even know this information, but if they do why are they not sharing it with their patients?

What about our food? It's not just about the calories but the nutrition in the food. Food from organic plants is going to be far better than anything in box or plants sprayed with chemicals. How do we help people shift from the fat/sugar processed foods to vegetables they have lost a taste for? People need encouragement to keep trying new foods, and new ways of cooking, ect.

I could go on and on with health information that is in the scientific literature (love PubMed), but that is not being translated into practice or in education to patients. And yes, I have a problem with the fact that doctors have very little time to spend with patients these days which I know is not their fault. So many changes are needed, but we have to believe that it is possible. I believe this event could be a catalyst to that change.

[disneysteve]

So much of what you said is true, but I really take issue with you suggesting that doctors and other healthcare providers don't know this stuff and don't try to explain it to their patients. OF COURSE WE DO. EVERY SINGLE DAY. I've had the conversation literally many thousands of times that taking a pill is only treating the symptoms and not addressing the cause. PATIENTS DON'T CARE. They just want the quick fix. They don't want to change their behavior and actually do things that could lead to not needing the pill at all.

Do you work in healthcare? Do you have direct patient contact on a regular basis? Do you have these conversations with patients?

As for the Vitamin D video you posted, I took a look at several of the "references" listed. None were randomized, double blinded, placebo controlled, peer reviewed studies. They were folks who took a faulty hypothesis and then went out looking for data to support it. That's not how science works.

Is vitamin D important? Sure. But if you want to prove it, you need to do legitimate research. YouTube didn't take down that video because it revealed some hidden secret that the medical field doesn't want you to know. They took it down because even suggesting that a virulent disease like COVID-19 could be prevented or cured with a vitamin D supplement is a very dangerous theory to be spreading because it will prevent people from seeking appropriate medical care.

[disneysteve]

And yes, I have a problem with the fact that doctors have very little time to spend with patients these days which I know is not their fault.

This is so true! It isn't that we don't have endless knowledge to share with patients. It's that we simply don't have the time. A visit with an obese, hypertensive, diabetic patient should be an hour long, not 7 minutes.

In my old practice, thanks to a grant from Merck, we started doing group visits for diabetic patients. We spent a couple of hours every month with a group of 10-12 patients with me, an endocrinologist, and a certified diabetes educator. We educated them about what causes diabetes, how the different medications work to lower sugar, how exercise impacts things, and how food affects things and much more. We did cooking lessons. We taught them how to modify some of their favorite recipes that they brought in. We did a lot of Q&A. The patients loved it and in a relatively short stretch of time, every single patient who went through those classes saw significant improvements in their fasting sugars, hemoglobin A1c, lipids, blood pressure, and weight, as well as just feeling better and more involved in their own care.

The problem is our system just isn't set up to do stuff like that routinely. We were only able to do it because Merck was funding it and the 3 of us pretty much donated our time.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

But CCF you are against socialized medicine. You don't like the military tricare. Yet you want people to have more care at dr. It seems somewhat counterintuitive. The US has also low outcomes because we don't do exactly what you are harping on. Preventative education (nutrition, even going to dr) and care because the US treats the symptoms and later because people don't have $ or coverage.

But you don't like socialized medicine so what can be the answer to getting a broader spectrum of care? Or even information?

[Smallsteps]

I think just like many other things people will think about their situation for a short period of time and very few will follow through.
The idea that THIS time it will be different and they will now KNOW why being healthy matters etc is almost amusing if it was not sad.

Take obesity as an example we have known the danger and complications for decades and a larger percentage of obese had complications with this virus.
Do I think that people will eat right and exercise?
Maybe for a time...... but when weight loss does not happen overnight or easy with a pill they will revert to playing a victim of bad genetics or something. If anyone dares say anything they will be labeled at fat shamers etc.

We have done so much damage to so many things in life by disregarding......... PERSONAL Responsibility.
Health or Finances and almost any other options in life. We have resorted to NOTHING is your fault and things just happen to people.....insert you reason here_______________.

[disneysteve]

We have done so much damage to so many things in life by disregarding......... PERSONAL Responsibility.

Exactly, and no, this time won't be different.

[Like2Plan]

"...discuss new ways of looking at optimal health and immunity in the face of this pandemic. In trying to better understand COVID-19, Dr. Bland went back to the basics of the immune system. He breaks down the processes at work, explains what the now often-heard phrase “cytokine storm” means, and talks about using food as medicine to promote immuno-rejuvenation. That means we’re not just supporting the current state of our immune system, we’re reviving it from the ground up. We talk about this and so much more on this week’s valuable episode. ⁣

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V20K...MarkHyman%2CMD

How funny--I took a chemistry class from Dr. Jeffrey Bland (many years ago).

[JBinKC]

The problem here is most food you can purchase are processed with additives like sugar HFCS too much sodium or questionable preservatives to initiate the metabolic syndrome cycle and so many people are being marginalized where that either is the only kind of food they can afford or is palatable to them. So I can not really blame the fat people. Big food and big Pharma want sick people because its good for their bottom line.

[soumyabhatia95]

The first step in solving any problem is to define the proper goal. Efforts to reform health care have been hobbled by a lack of clarity about the goal, or even by the pursuit of the wrong goal. Narrow goals such as improving access to care, containing costs, and boosting profits have been a distraction.

[crazyliblady]

creditcardfree . I had the same problem with doctors I went to. No offense, disneysteve, but I have never even met an MD that told me what to eat, drink, not to smoke, etc. In fact, many years ago, one told me that I had anxiety disorder based on a 5 minute interview. I wound up taking anxiety drugs for months and they did not thing to help me. My real problem was a nutritional imbalance and exhaustion, but they did not ask me if I sleep and how much, my eating habits, etc., but instead gave me a dangerous drug to fix a nonexistent problem. Like you, creditcardfree, I had to research my own problems and fix them myself, and I am actually healthier at 51 years than I was at 28.