Health Care Hierarchy: a Call for Opinions

What do you do about a headache? Notice that a quick reaction is to think of pills like aspirin, acetominophen, or ibuprofen. It is no surprise..

What do you do about a headache? Notice that a quick reaction is to think of pills like aspirin, acetominophen, or ibuprofen. It is no surprise. We want instant relief. We know that thousands of good scientists have spenthundreds of years and billions of dollars to create these solutions. Theyhave spent billions of dollars to advertise them to us, and we have paidbillions in response.

Why do many cultures continue to use their own curatives despite wide availability of these Western headache drugs? Other methods work, too! Of course, headaches are only an example — choose your own favorite ailment and the same will hold true. The term ‘holistic” implies that a person’s whole being is considered when making a proper diagnosis and treatment. Part of consideration when treating an ailment, therefore, is that person’s emotional, social and physical circumstances — the cultural package.

Do your health care practitioners ever seem to consider these factors deeply? Chances are, if they do, many assumptions are made, or you offered them the unsolicited information. Who, you ask, can really ascertain your Whole health? Perhaps your doctor knows some of your physical health conditions, your dentist has lots of records regarding your teeth, your gynecologist or urologist can recall a bit of your sexual history, and your therapist, family and friends can account for part of your mental/emotionalstate of being. You will never get them all into one room, though, toclearly characterize your whole health for you. Even if you will, and evenif your strong belief is natural or holistic methods, what kind of advantage can you expect inviting plus to them your chiropractor, massage therapist, herbalist, and yoga instructor all in the same room? Your health is not a arithmetic sum of all their knowledge. It is your and only your responsibility.

When considering a task, especially one with the gravity of your ownpersonal health care, you would be wise to apply order for the sake ofclarity. An interesting and revealing manner to view your health carechoices is by degree of naturalness.

Preventive    Passive     No invasion
Involuntarymechanisms    E.g., reflexes, subconscious reactions
(Avoiding hazards)
Active     No invasion
Voluntarydecisions    E.g., exercise
(Preserving or restoring naturalconditions)
Curative    External  Minimal invasion    E.g., physical therapy
(Affecting the body’s environment)
Internal  Moderate invasion    E.g., acupuncture
(Aiming the body’s self-healingmechanism)
Corrective    Drugs and Exposures    Intensive invasion    E.g., pills, injections, implants, radiation therapy
(Affecting the body’s functions)
Surgery    Maximal invasion    Operations
(Affecting the body’s structure)

This hierarchy creates a framework for personal health care strategy. The most desirable personal health care strategy will correspond to the mostnaturally effective methods available. That is, earlier the form oftreatment is in the list, the better off the “patient”. Let us also add the caveats: better techniques truly affect the problem (not the symptoms),and they avoid or minimize causing other health problems (side effects).

In general, you will note that, as you go down the list, not only do thetechniques become invasive, more risky procedures, requiring involvement ofmore people in the process. They also tend to increase the cost.

Let’s analyze the table. You might think of this list as a slipperyslope you walk down: a false step near the top will cause you to fall to alower level If you fail to gain footing there, you will drop to the nextlevel, and so on. You will quickly see that it behooves you to operate asclose to the top of the list as possible. Down the hill your controldecreases and your dependence increases.

Of course, the topmost category “Preventive – Passive” appears to be out ofyour control. On second look, though, you must consider that these self-regulating functions are based on the design of the human body and inreality might deviate from normal due to deviation from naturally intendedbody’s milieu interior.