A Week in Review: Where Do You Invest?

This last month I took a course on medication;  how it's made, the process of approval, what it does inside the body, patient compliance, side effects, the role of the pharmacist, and how to spot a counterfeit pill.  What I learned is this: There is no safe medicine.  There is only a positive measurement if the benefits of any medicine out weight the side effects.

As a family we take very little medications; we are young, active, good diet, middle class, health insurance, extremely fortunate, and we spend money investing in our health.

From February 27, 2013:

Where Do You Invest?

My shopping habits have been continually evolving from filling the pantry to filling the fridge; from shopping twice a month to shopping once a week; from making semi-homemade meals to making homemade meals with food benefits in mind.  I have also examined cost as factor when it comes to food in several posts since the beginning of this investigation.  With my fridge full and my pantry empty, my wallet isn't taking the impact I thought it would, but my health and my family's health is!

How much money do you spend monthly on medication?  Pain medication?  Heart medication? Diabetes, edema, cholesterol or headache medication?  If you had that money instead to spend on vitamins and food instead, would you buy better food?  What if instead of waiting for more money or less medications you just made a decision to invest in your health instead of investing in your symptoms?  The way to do that is through food; there is a food designed to heal everything~

I do not disbelieve in medicine.  What I disbelieve in is eating fried, saturated, fatty, starchy, sugary foods and then using medication to treat the symptoms of conditions that occur due to diet and exercise choices.  If you purchase a shirt at Kohl's and wear it while hiking and it tears, then wash it against the directions on the label and the shirt shrinks, you should not return it to Kohl's claiming a defective shirt.  If you treat your body like a garbage can, you can not claim your body is defective to justify medication  use.  Medication only treats the smell, the discharge and the infections brought on by the garbage; medication does not undo the damages, it only disguises them.

Medication for certain short term conditions is necessary for sure.  Some would argue long term medication is necessary for chronic conditions and I will not argue those beliefs; they are just not my beliefs.  What I do believe in is food as Hippocrates defined it: "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."

So, again, I ask, 'What if you just made a decision to invest in your health instead of investing in your symptoms?' While you digest the question and form an answer, please eat real food, drink liters of water, give your vitamins your vitamins, and, as always, remember to wash your hands.  'What if?'

Anna~