If you’re not one of my subscribers, and you just happened to stumble upon this blog post, you may not know anything about me. I’m an American Council on Exercise (ACE) Certified Personal Trainer (view my profile). And to stay current on the happenings in the fitness community, I receive a couple of fitness magazines that sometimes have articles that I find more interesting than others.
One of the sidebar articles in one of the monthly fitness magazines that I receive hit close to home for me [1]:
Food Prescriptions Could Save Billions
To invest in prevention, perhaps physicians should start writing scripts for broccoli as well as pharmaceuticals. Researchers from Boston’s Tufts University reviewed data on 82 million people, ages 35-80, from the 2009-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), plus meta-analyses and published sources involving Medicare and/or Medicaid beneficiaries. Using computer models, the investigators determined that if people received prescriptions for healthy food–including whole grains, nuts and vegetables–the nation could save up to $100.2 billion in healthcare costs because there would be fewer cases of certain chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease over study participants’ lifetimes.
Prescriptions that included a 30% discount on fruits and vegetables were predicted to help prevent 1.93 million cardiovascular events, such as heart attack, and slash nearly $40 billion in healthcare expenses. In other words, prescribing healthy foods and subsidizing the cost of purchasing them on a national scale through Medicare and Medicaid could be just as cost-effective in terms of overall healthcare expenses as prescribing certain drug treatments once people are already sick. Of note, the 2018 Farm Bill includes $25 million for a produce prescription pilot study.
Hitting Close to Home
This article hit close to home because I have been seeing a medical doctor specializing in holistic medicine. He worked in the traditional medical community for most of his career but was never at peace with what he was experiencing. Within the last decade, he has been practicing holistic medicine and helping hundreds of people heal through alternative and traditional medicine. This method is better than treating symptoms in the long run, as most doctors tend to do.
His unique testing method determined that my heart, liver, lungs, and adrenals weren’t up to par. He prescribed two ounces of beef and two stalks of celery daily, as well as some natural supplements and a few pharmaceuticals at low doses. He also said I needed to cut dairy out of my diet by 70%. The medicines usually run out within a couple of weeks, but the natural supplements continue until the next visit (usually 1-3 months, depending on the level of healing).
Healing with Proper Diet
I’m happy to report that I’m healing. My issue isn’t completely gone, but it’s significantly better. And that’s not all; I’m sleeping better, and my hot flashes aren’t nearly as intense as when I first started seeing this doctor. Actually, the hot flashes are nearly non-existent. What’s taken a couple of decades or more to form is healing in less time because my body is getting the nutrients it needs to function.
You might ask yourself why most doctors don’t practice medicine as this holistic doctor does. According to my doctor, there’s not as much money to make with a holistic medical practice as with a traditional one. There’s a reason it’s called “Big Pharma.”
So, is it time you thought more about food prescriptions vs. pharmaceuticals? Should you seek a doctor who is more concerned about your health rather than lining his/her own pockets? These are questions I believe everyone should be asking.
Until next time, live sensible, be healthy.
[1] Unknown Author. “Food Prescriptions Could Save Billions.” Fitness Journal, Sept. 2019, p. 48. -->BACK<–
