An Article from USA Today Got My Attention

On November 16th, U. S. A. Today ran an article that discussed how hospital care has been fatal for some patients. The results of a study by Medicare is alarming- 44% of people in the hospital had injuries that were preventable and 1 in 7 patients experienced serious harms due to hospital stays.

Did you know that 15,000 people die each month from Medical MISTAKES? That’s 3 times the amount of American deaths than Vietnam War casualties! I believe that medicine is the number three killer in the country next to cancer and heart attacks. Taking care of your body is important! Focus on wellness now so you don’t need medicine and hospitals!

Learn more about the article by clicking here-

http://www.healthfinder.gov/news/newsstory.aspx?docID=646014

John and Michael - A Story of Life, Death & Meaning by Dr. Ronald Sinagra

I could not have written this column ten, five or even a few years ago. As my 45th year draws to a close, my outlook on life has changed. My goals of success and the avenues I chose to obtain them kept leaving me empty and personal happiness seemed to be elusive. I did achieve some of my goals such as: graduating chiropractic college, establishing a private practice and obtaining financial and material success. Why then did I feel that something was missing in my life? These achievements are the one I yearned for as a child. Society makes you believe that success is the answer to a happy life. I believed the old adages to be true. You worked hard to build a career then happiness and financial success would follow.

The rich and powerful know something that you and I don’t know. Success, money and power do not satisfy our soul or bring happiness. Only once these pursuits are obtained do we realize that these things are not what we really wanted. Read any tabloid about Hollywood. We peruse stories about the rich and famous whose lives are filled with anger, deceit, excess, pain and unhappiness. Yet, most of us feel that if we had their success we would get it right. We would know better. The rich and powerful have every problem we do except for money, which ironically leads to a host of problems we never even think about. Our real goals should be contentment and inner peace. Success is good and money is good. They just cannot and do not satisfy the soul.

I want to share a story of two men who greatly impacted my life. The first story is about my high school friend, Michael, who had everything to live for but lost his life to a horrific illness. The second story is about John, whose last name I don’t even know. John did all he could just to stay alive. These men never met but their stories taught me many powerful lessons, which helped fill the emptiness in myself.

In the fall of 2002, Michael invited me to the city for dinner. His wife was away visiting family and we were planning a boy’s night out. Michael was one of those people who had it all. He was handsome, intelligent funny and successful. After graduating college, he worked for a Wall Street firm and made his first million in his early thirties. He married a beautiful girl and had two wonderful children. He owned a house in the Hamptons and a loft in Manhattan. Michael made plans for us to have dinner at his favorite restaurant. We met and as we were walking, I noticed that he was limping. I didn’t think much of it at the time and told him to see a neurologist. Michael called me after seeing the doctor. He told me that the neurologist wasn’t sure what was wrong but there was a chance he might have Lou Gehrig’s disease. He asked me if this diagnosis was serious. My heart lurched in my chest and I knew in that one second that life would never be the same for my friend, his family and all those who loved him. It was Lou Gehrig’s disease and we all watched helplessly as Michael wasted away. He died less than two years later and it was a devastating loss to so many of us. He was a special man and I miss him terribly.

I met John in the late 1990’s while attempting to dock my boat at the beach. It was a very windy day and the water was whipping about. John jumped onto his boat and guided me so that I could successfully maneuver my boat into the slip. He is a kind and friendly person. After that, I did not see him for a couple of years until we bumped into each other at the gym. I would see him there often and we would talk extensively. One day I noticed that John did not look well. He had lost weight and his color was off. I asked him how he was feeling. He told me he had a serious heart condition and was dying. His wife was with him as he explained his condition. She said nothing but I could feel her sadness and pain. John needed a heart transplant and was running out of time. As the months passed, I did not see John again at the gym. I could not help but think the worst. Did John lose his fight? I thought he did. Then one day while visiting the gym, I looked out at the track and saw John running! He received a heart and a chance at a new life. His wife was with him and she radiated happiness like a spring day. This was a special day I won’t forget. I learned a lesson about what really is important to an individual and the answer is life and love!

My friend Michael had more success and money than most of us will ever have yet in the end, it was meaningless to him and all who loved him. What is important is life and Michael would have traded all his success and wealth just to be alive. SO what really matters in the end? It is life! This is a powerful lesson. Nothing is more important than being alive and every day of our lives should be a celebration. We allow so many distractions to get in the way of the simple joy of just living. We worry and get stressed over unimportant things in our daily routines and miss the simple beauty of God’s most precious gift, life. During a recent gym workout, I overheard some men talking. One man was predicting upcoming economic disaster and another was complaining about gas prices. I looked up and saw John running on the track. I yelled out to him and asked him if he cared about the economy? “No,” he said. “I’m just happy to still have problems to think about.” I was amazed by his answer. He is just happy to be alive, problems and all. The main thing is that he is still here to feel life and all the good, bad, joy and pain that comes with it.

We as human beings do something that no other animal or creature on this plant does. We ask, “Why am I here?” An animal’s primary focus is food, shelter and reproduction. We yearn for more than survival. We think and question the meaning of life and happiness. We fill our younger years chasing falsehoods. We pursue money, success, power, sex and material possessions only to realize they cannot fulfill the soul or the void inside. It is only after chasing these falsehoods and coming up empty do we start to see what is important and what makes life meaningful.

I learned that a life of meaning is far more important than material success. As we search for happiness it becomes obvious that it is not something you obtain. It is a choice. You are either happy or you are not. There are no ordinary moments in life. We create our unhappiness by believing that something is missing in our lives. If I only had this or that is a life stealing way of thinking. It steals today for the promise of happiness tomorrow. Michael and John showed me that the most important thing in life is life. It is only when we wake each day thinking it is beautiful just to be alive can we start to enjoy life right now, right where we are. What is a life of meaning? It is not about wealth or success. It is about love and being loved and savoring each moment. It is about appreciating those moments that don’t last like your child’s first steps, a beautiful summer day, or a fine bottle of wine. I don’t believe there is one answer to the question of what denotes a meaningful life. I think there are many answers. Enjoy each moment and fill your life with love. Never forget that life is a fleeting and fragile entity absolute beauty.

Valley of the Blind by Dr. Ronald Sinagra

Author H. G. Wells wrote a story called “Valley of the Blind”. It is about a traveler who is lost in the mountains and is facing certain death. This formerly wiry man is on the edge of exhaustion when he discovers a hidden valley. Upon entering this valley, he finds a thriving community but as he looks closely, he realizes all the people are blind. Not only are they blind, they don’t even have eyes. These people welcome him and save his life. As he talks to them, he realizes not only do they not have eyes, they never did. The concept of vision is beyond their comprehension. In time, he meets and falls in love with a daughter of one of the community leaders. He asks for and is granted her hand in marriage. All goes well until the community leaders hear of his talk of vision, which is creating chaos among the people. Eventually the leaders no longer tolerate the newcomer’s talk of blue skies, green pastures and the like as it goes against all their teaching. The traveler is told he cannot marry and will be put to death for heresy. He is given a choice though. If he has his eyes removed and promises to cease speaking of vision, he will be spared. In the middle of the night, the traveler sneaks away leaving behind his love and faces death alone in the mountains. He would rather face death than give up his vision and be forced to live a lie in the valley of the blind.

I have shared this story because it is the perfect metaphor for many issues facing Americans at the present time. It appears that many of us have the eyesight of an eagle and the vision of a clam. We are currently in a nationwide debate on health care reform. Don’t be fooled. This is not a debate on reform but a debate on who pays for a failing system. We have not examined its approach, methods, or most importantly, its results. The World Health Organization ranks the United States 37th in the world regarding health. We are just ahead of Slovenia and behind Costa Rica and Columbia. The United States spends 45% more on health care costs than every other country in the world. Our debate on health care is not asking the most vital question; “Can our current system work?” I believe it cannot work and we as a nation are not willing to look at the truth. I want to share some startling facts about our health care system. The United States represents only 5% of the world’s population, yet we consume 45% of the world’s prescription drugs. The American Medical Association reported that “conventional medical treatment” is the third leading cause of death for Americans. From 1993-2003, over 7.8 million people died as a result of conventional medical treatment and medical mistakes. These numbers are staggering. This is more dead Americans than every war the United States has ever fought COMBINED! Recently, I viewed a talk show and the host asked a medical doctor why we ranked so low in the world regarding health. He replied it was due to the 40 million Americans without health insurance. I was dumbfounded. To fix our crisis you give 40 million uninsured individuals access to the third leading cause of death in this country? True reform would include a stark look at all aspects of health care, not just access and payment by principle and practice.

Why is this happening? How can we have the best medical doctors, hospitals, and technology, spend the moist money, and still fail? There is a simple answer to this. Our system is not designed for health. If asked to define health, most people give the wrong answer. People just don’t know. “Taber’s Medical Dictionary says: Health is a state in which all body function is normally active, not merely the absence of disease, infirmities, and symptoms.” What is the primary role of our hospitals and medical doctors? It is to treat disease and infirmities. In the definition, Taber states that health consists of more than what we obtain in our health care system. Are you starting to see the problem? There is health care and crisis care. Most of our system falls under crisis care and our country has the best crisis care in the world. I wouldn’t want to live without it. The problem arises when you use crisis care for health care. When this is done our system fails miserably. We need a system that educates people about health and one that promotes the maintenance of health and restoration of health in the sick. If we continue with our current “wait until it breaks” approach, combined with the over use of prescription drugs and surgery, we will continue to fail.

Our health care system has become a pawn of big drug company ideals and money. I believe we are not taught the meaning of health for a reason. If you understand the ideology of health, you will never accept drug therapy as health care. We are indoctrinated from childhood that over-the-counter and prescription drugs constitute health care. We are bombarded by all forms of media that the answer is drugs. Drug companies have a calculated plan to push this type of thinking. They now even bypass the M.D. by using television commercials to push their products. Patients now enter their doctor’s office and ask for a certain type of drug based on a commercial. After hearing the side effects in these television advertisements, are you surprised health is not the result? The conditioning of our society by this propaganda is astonishing. I have seen drug commercials for products that include possible side effects such as lymphoma, seizures, stroke, and death. Yes… death! P.T. Barnum would be proud. The M.D. is also the target of this plan. On September 9th, 2009, Newsday reported that Pfizer was fined $2.3 billion dollars for a marketing scheme. Federal agents called them a repeat corporate cheat for pushing their drugs with offers of golf trips, vacations and more. They even promoted drugs for conditions they are not approved for. As stated earlier, this is a calculated plan for you to believe that health care is drug therapy. The days of patients over profit are gone. This is big business working for huge profits, not for you.

America has become a dispensary for prescription drugs and what is lost along the way is health. Not only do we not look to restore health; we have lost faith in it. We empower disease and discredit health as our ultimate combatant for illness. We have reduced the healing power of a healthy body to an afterthought. We have learned to accept illness and put our faith in a laboratory with its drugs and its false promises of health. J.H. Tilden, M.D. said: “The study of disease per se leads to chaos. Only knowledge of health, the study of health can give true knowledge of disease, for disease is handicapped health”. Disease is a by-product of poor health and we have been falsely taught the opposite. This falsehood has people living in fear and focusing on illness and germ paranoia instead of working to be healthy. It can be seen quite clearly with the Swine Flu “pandemic”. The media and those promoting vaccine sales are creating a panic. There is no talk of staying healthy to prevent illness. Instead, we run like scared rats to get a shot. We have become powerless victims! Dr. Dennis T. Jaffe, in his book, “Healing From Within” offers a different viewpoint. “The patients must be guided towards discovering the healing powers that lie within him. Faith and pills and external treatments can be replaced by faith in oneself.”

It is my opinion that our system of health care is failing because it is ignoring the most powerful force on this planet… life! NASA searches the cosmos for life, yet with health care, we refuse to acknowledge this life force that animates all living creatures. The healing spark is real and tangible. Bernie Siegal, M.D., author of “Love, Medicine, and Miracles” says: “Within each of us there is a spark, call it a divine spark if you will. But it’s there and it can light the way to health.” Instead of embracing this God given miracle of life we choose to empower illness, disease, drugs and fear. Dr. Richard Cabot of Harvard University added this: “God and the wisdom of the human body constitutes ninety percent of the hope of patients to recover. The body simply has a super-wisdom, which is biased in favor of life rather than death. These are the powers on which all of us depend for life. I earnestly recommend the medical profession let the patient know of this great force within him.” We as a nation have done just the opposite. We have minimized our inner healer, making us feel like powerless victims. Enough! You have a choice. You can have faith in yourself and live a fearless life or you can scurry back to the valley of the blind. Have the courage to open your eyes. The choice is yours.