What do we value the most in life? What we mean when we say we value something is that we would literally pay a “price” for it if we had to because we cherish it to some degree or extent.
In college I came just a few credits short of a sociology minor. I remember one of the things I learned in my education was that by observing the choices, attitudes, and mannerisms of people, we can learn about what they value. Oftentimes, one need not even speak a word to convey what they truly value in life. All you had to do was watch people. This was never more true than when for one assignment we were asked to go to the local mall, sit on one of the indoor benches, and just watch people passing by; observing their body language, speech, and overall, mannerisms and actions. You can imagine the things I saw and what it disclosed about someone.
My question is why don’t people value their health more than they actually do? We have over 300 million people living in the United States, and it seems as if we value disease more than we value health. Why is that?
Think about it. According to the CDC National Center for Health Statistics in 2005, heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes all ranked within the top 10 all-cause reasons for death that year, with hypertension coming in at number 13. What does this actually reveal to us as a nation? That we don’t value our health. How can I say such a thing? Here’s why. Of the top 10 leading causes of death in 2005, arguably, 7 of them are actually preventable.
The four causes I mentioned above (heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes) actually accounted for over one half of the all cause mortality that year alone! And guess what? Much of your hard earned health care dollars are spent on treating the symptoms of those diseases every single day. Why is health care so expensive? Is it because we don’t value our own health as we should in the first place?
Again, I ask what do we truly value as a country? If health is one of your answers, I think you might be wrong. As morbid as this may sound, the statistics might even lead one to believe we value death over health. Pretty tough to swallow, huh?If four of the top-ten killers of Americans can be prevented, yet we still have over fifty-percent of our population dying from such illnesses, what can be presumed? Any person can see that the majority of us place more value on other things than orienting our lifestyles in such a manner as to prevent those diseases.
How can this situation change? I believe it starts with redefining how we look at “health” care. Start integrative health principles in the form of dietary reform and nutrition, stress reduction, proper rest, and spiritual wellness. I’m not saying there is no place for pharmacologic intervention, because there certainly is, but my overall point is to avoid the need to treat symptoms by preventing them in the first place. This only comes about by initiating change, and although difficult, I believe, we will ultimately have to change because we will be forced to. If the current statistics keep going the way they are trending, despite all our advancements in scientific medicine, then we are headed for a disaster. And, unfortunately, sometimes it takes a catharsis to wake us up and realize that the way we currently are doing things isn’t working.
Prevention and education are the keys to unlocking a revolution in medicine. Sadly, it seems as if it will require a catastrophe for us to actually value them first.
