Rants and Roars

For the Health of It

Well, if we live we gotta grow old baby

And I know how you are gonna be

Your feet are already a little chilly baby

And you are getting a little cold to me

The reality of aging is something that we often inadvertently park in the back of our minds in the hope that it may never happen. It does happen, however, and with it come a myriad of challenges and issues that are predominantly associated with the passage of time.  Increased longevity and declining fertility is undoubtedly leading us into uncharted waters.

Population aging is occurring in both developed and developing countries and although we are seeing that trend in North America…. neither Canada nor the United States are among the countries with the highest share of seniors according to the United Nations. Japan, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Sweden and others currently top that list and are projected to continue doing so for the next 40 years

According to research, North Americans spend more on health care, yet are sicker than most other people in the world. We suffer from higher incidences of cancer, lung disease and a host of other diseases and despite massive expenditures on medical treatments and drugs we appear to be sick more than ever before in our history.  Why have all those ‘miracle drugs’ that have been manufactured and promoted by pharmaceutical companies neither prevented nor cured the most common diseases in this country?

The answer, according to Madison Cavanaugh, author and medical researcher: Disease is big business. Pharmaceutical companies are raking in trillions of dollars to address health issues so there is no real incentive on their part to promote better health.  They are the most profitable industry in the world, enjoying average profit margins of 30,000% to 50,000% on drugs over the cost of raw materials. They are purported to have reached markups as high as 569,000%. Why would they want us to be well?

According to Cavanaugh, the pharmaceutical industry has more to gain when people are sick than when they are well. Therefore, they manufacture drugs that only relieve symptoms but do not cure disease.  We have been led to believe that whenever we are sick all we have to do is pop a pill to feel better and that is exactly what most people do.

One can do a quick search and readily find skeptics who believe that fictitious diseases are “invented” all the time by the pharmaceutical industry for no other reason than to sell prescription drugs. Just think about the array of new diseases that you hear of today that were unheard of only 10-20 years ago. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prime example – a condition usually brought about by the overconsumption of refined sugar, junk food and soft drinks by children. Rather than curb the source of the problem have we simply assisted pharmaceutical companies in becoming more wealthy by purchasing their revolutionary drug Ritalin to address the condition?

Is it coincidental that most of us, particularly in North America, have been categorized as having at least one kind of disorder? All too frequently many of us are taking one drug after another to counter the adverse effects of other drugs that are, in all likelihood, doing nothing that a healthy lifestyle wouldn’t do in the first place. Have we been conditioned to believe that pharmaceutical drugs are the answer to all our aches and pains while some of the healthiest people on the planet continue to embrace wholistic lifestyles and healthy living?

Recently, I have accepted what I had inadvertently parked in the back of my mind for years – the fact that I,  like all of us, am growing older. Not a bad thing I suppose…considering the alternative! 

Not unlike most families, serious illness has also burden my own in recent years…and with it a realization that the pharmaceutical frenzy has embraced us by the throat and is legally beating us to death… not to mention robbing us blind.

It is abundantly clear that we have drugs for everything…but predominantly as a means of treating symptoms of an illness as opposed to addressing the root causes.  We have entered  an era of perpetual dependency where many must choose between a drug cocktail and a healthy dinner.  Ironically, we have essentially become what society has shunned for years…

Got a headache? Well, pop a pill man… Don’t bother taking a brisk walk – the fresh air might kill you…

I’ll get your meds when your tummy aches

Build you a fire if the furnace breaks

I wanna make you smile whenever you’re sad

Carry you around when your arthritis is bad

Oh baby, it could be so nice growing old with you…

(B.B. King)