The Future of Health Care

by Dr. Isaac Jones

Greg is a 42-year-old executive from Denver that is married with 4 children. He has a demanding job and is often traveling the world for business meetings and conferences. He doesn’t sleep the best, he’s gained over 30lbs in the last several years and he finds himself eating out for most of his meals. Over time, he has become more fatigued and has developed chronic headaches. He has a great relationship with his wife and children. Greg is loved greatly and a lot of people rely on his leadership and friendship. Over the years he’s worked out on and off. He’s even gone on a few short-term diets. He didn’t see this coming, but now his lifestyle has lead him to have high cholesterol and be pre-diabetic. Disease had been forming silently in his body for years, and could now kill him without any respect for his family, friends or organization.

Preventable diseases and disorders are at an all time high. More and more people like Greg are being ripped away from their families, churches, businesses and organizations by premature and preventable death. A shift in our understanding around healthcare needs to happen.

Currently:

1 in 3 women will develop cancer in their life time (1)
1 in 2 men will do the same (1)
Cancer claims 1 in 3 lives (1)
More than 1 in 2 people will develop one or more forms of cardiovascular disease (2)
1 in 2 people will die from cardiovascular disease
1 in 3 people will develop diabetes (3)
Strokes, the “heart attacks of the brain,” are the second leading cause of death. Strokes are caused by the same underlying factors that trigger heart disease. If you survive a stroke, it typically affects your life forever (4).

On average we spend over $8,000 per person per year on “healthcare” in America. In 2010, the United States spent 12% of its GDP ($2.7 trillion) on what they call “healthcare.” We’ve been spending similar amounts of money each year over the last ten years. After spending all this money, why aren’t we any healthier? Here’s what the research shows:

1 in 10,000 children were diagnosed with Autism ten years ago. In 2010, 1 in 110 children in the U.S. were diagnosed (5)
It’s even worse in the UK with numbers as high as 1 in 58 children diagnosed with Autism (6)
ADHD, Dyslexia, Tourette syndrome and OCD are increasing at the same rate (7)
1 in 6 five or six-year-olds will be diagnosed with some type of neurological disorder that affects their ability to learn and socially interact (8)
Upon autopsy of children who had passed away in car accidents examiners found up to 90% occlusion of their arteries. This means that those children were developing heart disease under the age of 10 (9)
1 in 2 children born after the year 2002 will develop diabetes (10)

Between the years of 1975-2005 (11):

Thyroid cancer has increased by 116%
Testicular cancer has increased by 60%
Acute Childhood leukemia has increased by 82%
Non-Hodgkin's lymphocytic leukemia has increased by 67%
Childhood brain cancer has increased by 39%
Post-menopausal breast cancer has increased by 22%

A healthcare paradigm shift needs to take place as disease and disorder rapidly spread to levels we’ve never experienced before. We must reorient our selves to healthcare by changing the way we approach health.

There are typically two models of healthcare: the reactive Traditional Medical Model (TMM) and the proactive New Health Model (NHM). The TMM focuses on treating symptoms of disease with drugs and surgery. Over 98% of health professionals are treating the effects of disease through these two tools. The NHM, however, focuses on addressing the causes of disease through reducing and removing factors that create disease within the body. Doctors that practice under the umbrella of the NHM educate their patients on how to live a healthy lifestyle and give them long term solutions that address underlying problems while maximizing their health.

There is nothing more devastating than having a false belief and receiving false information about the source of health and illness. False beliefs about the source of illness and health have caused more death and suffering than all human wars combined. There is nothing more important than learning the truth about the origin of health and disease. Treating the effects of problems never create solutions. Taking an aspirin to cover up a headache won’t address the cause of the headache. What happens if you silence the smoke alarm over your bed at night? Does that get rid of the fire in the basement? It will only allow the fire to become more destructive. Symptoms are your body’s cry for help. They are signals that your body is out of balance and that you need to make changes.

The reality is that focusing on treating symptoms creates more sick people. To exemplify the flaws in this type of thinking, consider a recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine. In 18,000 pre-menopausal breast cancer patients (breast cancer is one of the worst types of cancer), investigators found that creating more health in the bone reduced the recurrence of cancer by 35% (12). In this study, creating health in the bones affected the breasts. This study provides sound evidence that when you change the soil disease grows in, the seed doesn’t grow as well. If you change the system you can have a marked affect on cancer.

The NHM focuses holistically on prevention, behavioral change and addressing the causes of disease formation. One word that describes the NHM is “cause” as it is focusing on reducing and removing the interferences within your body that creates disease.

TEDMED is an annual conference that focuses exclusively on healthcare. Every year, the overlying theme that rises to the surface at TEDMED is that in order to address 21st century diseases and disorders our healthcare system needs to be focused on behavioral change or lifestyle change. Combine that with removing underlying causes of disease in the body, such as environmental toxins, inflammatory inducing foods, and micronutrient deficiencies, and you’re on the fast track to changing the soil within your body. If we can help people change their lifestyle and remove these interferences, we will not only prevent disease but also maximize their life experience.

Greg started working with my team in early 2011. We started with the basics, educating him on strategies for deeper sleeps, cellular hydration and exercise (these simple yet transformative strategies you can get for free here). He learned how to eat healthy on the go and, after some lab work we addressed his disease risk factors through lifestyle change, nutrition and supplementation. Within 3 short months Greg lost 23lbs, his health and energy skyrocketed and he overcame his risk for a heart attack and diabetes.

The future of healthcare lies in removing the cause of disease and lifestyle change. As followers of Jesus, we need to go one step further in sharing healthy lifestyle strategies, we need to promote new identities—identities of individual’s who choose to consciously live healthy lifestyles. As restorers, our duty isn’t just to bring the kingdom of Heaven on earth spiritually, but also physically.

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his or her patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.”—Thomas A. Edison

What are some immediate action steps that you can take to increase your health?
How do you see your increase in health and wellbeing affecting your life and the people you influence?

Editor's Note: This image was found here.

Footnotes:
1 Cancer Prevention Coalition 2010
?2 American Heart Association 2010
3 Center of Disease Control 2010
4 Donnan GA, Fisher M, Macleod M, Davis SM (May 2008). "Stroke". Lancet 371 (9624): 1612–23.
5 Center of Disease Control 2010
6 Dr. Robert Melillo “Disconnected Kids” 2009
7 Dr. Robert Melillo “Disconnected Kids” 2009
8 Dr. Robert Melillo “Disconnected Kids” 2009
9 Young Mi Hong, “Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Beginning in Childhood” Korean Circ J. 2010 January; 40(1): 1–9.
10 US News and World Report 2009
11 Cancer Statistics Review 2005
12 New England Journal of Medicine, January 2010

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