“The biggest contradiction in our culture today is calling medicine, healthcare. Medicine is not healthcare. It’s sickcare. When you take sickcare and provide it to a culture as healthcare then you end up with a sick culture.” Dr. Brandon Lundell

$2.7 trillion spent annually

It doesn’t matter what you call it…“The Affordable Healthcare Act” (ACA), or “The American Healthcare Act” (AHA), or whatever the current administration’s version is called…it’s just the orchestra playing a different tune as the Titanic continues to sink into the icy cold waters.

The healthcare system in this country has been broken for a very long time. The AHA was impotent from the beginning. The only thing that the ACA was good for getting more people enrolled into a broken system by forcing them to pay for “health insurance” which would more accurately be described as “sickness tax”.

I can understand how, with the ACA, someone might feel as though they had been allotted a certain amount of protection they did not previously have. However…in keeping with the Titanic analogy, all that was accomplished was that they released a few of the poorer passengers from the Steering Class section. Still a sinking ship! Sorry, no more life preservers but maybe you can swim fast enough to keep warm in the icy waters.

In terms of acute care there is no better place to be than right here in the ‘Good Ole U S of A’. Our emergency medical system is second to none.

Problem #1

The current model of healthcare is based on treating acute issues. Back in the day, as this current system was developing, going to the doctor was the last resort. Consequently, if you showed up at the doctor’s doorstep, it was an emergency.

Unfortunately, chronic illness, not acute, is the very thing that is killing people in this country. When you treat a chronic illness with an acute-care model you end up with a lot of really unhealthy people!

Chronic illness, not acute, is slowly, insidiously, physically and financially, destroying this country. Annually, $1.65 Trillion is spent treating patients with one or more chronic diseases. Chronic illnesses account for 75% of the $2.2 trillion we spend on health care each year in the U.S. These numbers are expected to continue growing. Some sources say the costs of treating diabetes alone can bankrupt this country by 2050.

The vast majority of chronic illnesses are very preventable. It’s estimated that eliminating just three risk factors – poor diet, inactivity, and smoking – would prevent: 80% of heart disease and stroke; 80% of type 2 diabetes; and, 40% of cancer. If we take into account what we are learning from the burgeoning field of epigenetics I suspect that the preventability of all three, including cancer, would increase significantly.

Problem #2

The unfortunate truth is that the current model is a profit driven system, in which the vast majority of the profits go to the insurance company and the pharmaceutical industry. The insurance companies only pay $XX.XX for a fifteen minute office visit. The pharmaceutical companies incentivize hospitals and physicians for prescribing. There is no motivation to heal. And certainly there is no motivation to educate on prevention. This only allows for management of symptoms. Hence the doctor is thinking in terms of patient visits per hour and a drug for each symptom.

Recently, for example, a young lady was referred to our office by another patient. I do not take any insurance.

She was having neck and shoulder pain. She considered herself to be pretty healthy. She did have a long history of migraine headaches for which her doctor prescribed Fioricet. It kept them down to one or two a month, usually when she was on cycle. Over the past few months she started having digestive problems. She was given a prescription for Nexium. She said, “he told me I’m just getting older.” She is 32. Additionally, since beginning the Nexium her headaches have increased in frequency. Coincidentally, she had recurring colds this past winter.

I explained to her that one of the side effects of her headache medication is indigestion and that one of the side effects of Nexium is head and muscle pain. We started her on an anti-inflammatory diet, adjusted her spine, and ordered some blood work. Within the first week her neck and shoulder pain was gone.

We determined that she had an epigenetic issue that impacts her ability to metabolize folic acid and B12. I explained that these simple nutrients are vital for immune system function, proper digestion, and anti-inflammatory processes. We put her on a specific protocol (designed to address this epigenetic issue) and by the end of week two she had lost five pounds and had no more headaches.

At the end of two months she was down 22 pounds, no headaches and her cycle “just kinda came and went.” As long as she stays away from gluten, which is strongly linked to the epigenetic issue, she has no problems.

Had she continued with her insurance covered provider, she would likely have been diagnosed with something like Fibromyalgia and prescribed Lyrica for her “over active nerves” and the Cymbalta for her depression.

This regrettably is not an isolated incident. Furthermore, this is not an indictment of the doctor. The doctor is a product of the USS Titanic Healthcare System.

Last Fall I had a young lady come to me for help. She was suffering with chronic back pain since disc replacement surgery more than 10 years ago. Virtually, anything she ate or drank resulted in bloating and painful abdominal distention. Additionally, she had been unable to lose the weight she had gained during a recent pregnancy that ended in a miscarriage 3 months prior to her visit. She and her husband are both anxious to try again. However, she wisely convinced him that she needed to work on herself first. She came to me for help with her back pain. We discussed how her digestive issues could be contributing to both her pain and inability to lose weight. She told me that she had been doing some research, “looking for a good diet book.” She thought perhaps she might be allergic to wheat as well. She told me, “My husband thinks that’s just pseudo-science (using air quotes). He says I just need to clean up my diet. What do you think?” After a thoughtful pause to temper my response I smiled and said, “WELL…”

Below is a summary of information and my opinions that I shared with her.

The book “Eat Right 4 Your Type” is a good starting point. Additionally, “The Whole Thirty” and “It Starts with Food” can also provide some very accurate and helpful info to get started. (The latter I think is more concise.) But you should keep in mind they are starting points only.”

I cringe when people say things like “All you need to do is eat a healthy diet.” They don’t realize that this advice is neither helpful nor accurate. What may be healthy for me may not be healthy for you. What we have learned from recent and ongoing Genomic studies, The Human Microbiome Project, and the burgeoning field of Epigenetics is the importance of individualized treatments. There is no One Size Fits All! Just because something works for a group or even your twin sister doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to work for you.

Sometimes people have strong opinions, or perhaps pseudo-opinions regarding things they know little about. They often use terms like “gimmicky” and “conspiracy” about things they do not fully understand. Or perhaps they are getting outdated information from a conventionally trained doctor who is either too lazy to keep up with the current research, somehow threatened by it, or more likely just plain overwhelmed by it.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic.”
Arthur C. Clark

The unfortunate truth is that it takes about 17 years for new clinical information to be adopted into. For instance, you may, or may not be sensitive to wheat, or gluten, or gliadin (a component of gluten). But the fact remains that it is not a fad, a conspiracy, or pseudoscience. Below is a quote from a 2014 PubMed study entitled “Immunogenetics of non celiac gluten sensitivity”,

“In the past 10 years it has become clear that there is a group of conditions related to gluten consumption. Foremost among them are three types: a) the least common is wheat allergy; although the estimated prevalence of food allergy among adults in Western Europe is thought to be between 1 and 2%, with the frequency in infants being greater (approximately 5%). b) The autoimmune form, the best characterized, includes CD (Crohn’s Disease), dermatitis herpetiformis, and gluten ataxia and c) sensitivity to gluten, which is possibly immune-mediated and now the most common (13).”

In my practice, we find about 35-40% of patients with digestive problems have a genetic defect of the MTHFR gene that impacts their ability to metabolize folic acid and B12. Both are vital for digestive function, immune function, and anti-inflammatory processes. Additionally, you may have adequate levels of these vitamins on conventional labs but you may not be able to properly metabolize them with the MTHFR defect.

Turns out, this patient has a variety of food sensitivities, including gluten, causing her to remain chronically and systemically inflamed. She also has one homozygous defect of the MTHFR gene that may have contributed to her miscarriage. However, with the personalized dietary changes, supplementation, and chiropractic adjustments, over a 6 month period, this young lady has lost 50 lbs., her digestion is significantly improved, and her back pain is virtually nonexistent.

There are accurate and verifiable methods of testing to determine what works for YOU. Your best bet is to consult with someone who focuses on functional medicine. That person would want to see all of your recent lab work and would likely want to order a few other tests such as verifying your MTHFR status. At that point, they can help you determine appropriate dietary and lifestyle changes to help you get your health back on track.

It’s time to invest in YOU!