Years ago on a radio talk show regarding health, the host asked the guest, an M.D., “What is pain?” The doctor’s response, “Whatever the patient says it is.”

Hallelujah! Only the patient is experiencing the pain and knows his/her body. Likewise, only the patient, that is you and me, know–or at least have a clue–when we’re well or not, in other words if we’re feeling “healthy.”

H. Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine at Dartmouth, wrote an essay in the NY Times this week (7/28/09) on the need to redefine what is “health”. Professor Welch, who is an MD, writes that what constitutes “health” for years has been defined by health professionals who have a financial interest in the answer.

These are health professionals who are invested in or are on the payroll of the pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, manufacturers of medical devices and diagnostic technologies, labs, surgical centers, clinics, hospitals, etc. The editor of The New England Journal of Medicine labeled this some 30 years ago as the “medical-industrial complex”. I will call the band of them MIC.

This band, MIC, now defines health as the absence of abnormality as ever-new technologies are developed and ready to measure us. Dr. Welch writes that people use to seek health care because they were sick. Now MIC seeks patients so every little ache or twitch should be checked out and “labs are needed”.

Doctors and public only know drugs
A major contributor to drawing in the patients has been direct-to-the-consumer (DTC) advertising, especially on television. There were years of heavy pharmaceutical ads, and who couldn’t eventually identify some little twitch or pain they could use that drug for? New Zealand is the only other country that allows DTC advertising of drugs, but the education of our MDs in drugs being the sole healing modality and the American public’s lack of alternatives to drugs has resulted in our four percent of the world’s population using 50 percent of the world’s pharmaceuticals.

But MIC also defines what is “normal” so this potential patient can fit into the “abnormal” category, of course. When I was having my children in my thirties, as many Boomers did, my obstetrician commented that the statistics of “high-risk age” for maternity would be changing with my generation. And it’s these statistics of what is “normal” that MIC manipulates. If over half the population is living quite well with blood pressure above the “norm” of 120/80, common sense would indicate the statistics should be revised. Since cancer cells are our own cells gone haywire, couldn’t we all be labeled by MIC as in pre-cancer condition? And if those babies were born a hefty 8 pounds plus or you have an extra 10 pounds, you’re surely pre-diabetic. (Following this logic, we’re all pre-deceased!)

Tests are costly and ineffective
This definition of health only serves the financial interests of MIC. The irony is that often the tests they do use–and then prescribe drugs to treat the phantom ailment–aren’t measuring anything significant. If half of those who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol, then what does managing cholesterol have to do with cardiovascular risk and why would you take a drug to reduce cholesterol? A new radiology test that captures internal views of every blood vessel in the body has found patients with lifelong very high cholesterol didn’t have a pinhead of plague in their vessels. (It’s dislodged plague that causes cardiovascular “events”.)

For the most part, the tests done by MDs don’t measure excesses or deficiencies until we’re in critical condition. They fail to keep us even close to optimal health. A friend who has occasional wakes-me-up pain in the kidney (and she’s had kidney stones so she knows PAIN) and scant blood in urine (she’s a nurse so observes things), went to the doctor for tests. His test indicated “everything’s normal”, and to quit complaining was his advice. She needs to seek nutritional and herbal support for her kidneys.

Another individual did just that. A complete physical and blood tests didn’t indicate causes for slightly swollen ankles or lower than normal energy. That was the MD’s assessment. “Everthing’s fine,” was the diagnosis. The TCM naturopath, in a 90-minute visit vs. 10-minute exam, through examining the six pulses and the tongue, saw that her heart was sluggish. With a herbal complex prescribed, within two days the ankles were no longer swollen and energy levels boosted so that an afternoon nap wasn’t a necessity.

Open system to all practitioners
So while the MDs and the medical-industrial complex manipulate the definition of health, and resulting costs have skyrocketed, their medical devices and lab tests also fail to detect non-optimal health conditions. To improve individuals’ and the nation’s health all the varied health practitioners must be brought into the health system. The education of our MDs has to be expanded beyond pharmaceuticals, and the population needs education in nutrition, herbs, and medical systems other than drugs.

The WMB mantra stands: You are (indeed) an Experiment of One with everything you take, and you are the only one that matters!

Salud!
Beverly A. Jensen, Ph.D.
President, www.WomensMedicineBowl.com