If you missed an enlightening article recently in the Reading Eagle by Dr. Philip J. Goscienski, aka "Stone Age Doc", let me offer you some of the highlights. He begins by clarifying the difference between a physician and a doctor, with the physician "spending most of his time making diagnoses, prescribing medications and performing surgical procedures", in other words, tending to illness or disease that already exists. On the other hand, a doctor is "a teacher or a learned person", necessary because "approximately ninety percent of the conditions that require treatment would not develop if patients knew how to prevent them and actually took the steps to do so."
What is amazing to me is his bold, unabashed clarity in the statement, "three simple steps would, without exaggeration, eliminate most of the disease burden that we are increasingly unable to afford". He's also clear about accountability, the burden of which does not rest solely on physicians, who often don't fulfill their role as doctors because there just aren't financial (translate: insurance) incentives to do so. He also places the mantle of blame squarely on the patients themselves (that would be us) for not asking the questions ("no patient should ever leave a physician's office or a hospital without knowing why they got there and how to avoid the same problem") or heeding strategies when they are offered.
Gary Zukav, a leading author and spiritual teacher, offers a classic simple catchphrase to keep us moving forward in situations such as these, where the enormity of the challenge can be paralyzing. He suggests whenever we run into "yes, but" as in "yes, but I was raised on scrapple" and "yes, but I get tired", we replace it with "now, what?" as in, "now that we understand that responsibility for our health sits squarely on OUR shoulders, what are we going to do about it?" Certainly not pretend any longer that the "cost" isn't going to be greater if we wait.
Now what we can do is whatever we can do, and maybe today that's just one small change.
Now, what we can do is walk up and down the stairs in the commercials. Or look up a way to bake our sweet potatoes instead of frying them. Or drink an extra glass of water. Or spend ten minutes in contemplation of the tiny new healthy habit we can begin to practice tomorrow, or the way we will reach out for the information or the help that we need.
You see, it's called practice for a reason. Because we don't always get it right, but we do need to keep at it until things reach critical mass, defined as "a size, number or amount large enough to produce a particular result". Love your physician, but get on the path to becoming your own doctor, and please do it today.
What is amazing to me is his bold, unabashed clarity in the statement, "three simple steps would, without exaggeration, eliminate most of the disease burden that we are increasingly unable to afford". He's also clear about accountability, the burden of which does not rest solely on physicians, who often don't fulfill their role as doctors because there just aren't financial (translate: insurance) incentives to do so. He also places the mantle of blame squarely on the patients themselves (that would be us) for not asking the questions ("no patient should ever leave a physician's office or a hospital without knowing why they got there and how to avoid the same problem") or heeding strategies when they are offered.
Gary Zukav, a leading author and spiritual teacher, offers a classic simple catchphrase to keep us moving forward in situations such as these, where the enormity of the challenge can be paralyzing. He suggests whenever we run into "yes, but" as in "yes, but I was raised on scrapple" and "yes, but I get tired", we replace it with "now, what?" as in, "now that we understand that responsibility for our health sits squarely on OUR shoulders, what are we going to do about it?" Certainly not pretend any longer that the "cost" isn't going to be greater if we wait.
Now what we can do is whatever we can do, and maybe today that's just one small change.
Now, what we can do is walk up and down the stairs in the commercials. Or look up a way to bake our sweet potatoes instead of frying them. Or drink an extra glass of water. Or spend ten minutes in contemplation of the tiny new healthy habit we can begin to practice tomorrow, or the way we will reach out for the information or the help that we need.
You see, it's called practice for a reason. Because we don't always get it right, but we do need to keep at it until things reach critical mass, defined as "a size, number or amount large enough to produce a particular result". Love your physician, but get on the path to becoming your own doctor, and please do it today.