Only a few generations ago, our life span was significantly shorter than it is today. However, with this evolution, age-related health problems and malfunctions started to sprout. We may be getting older, but we are far from being older and healthier.

 

Although medical technologies push boundaries in the attempt to "produce" survivors, survivors of sickness that once would have been fatal, it is fair to say that our health care is in a state of crisis.

The disease-based approach to medicine is not only expensive; it is ineffective and causes unnecessary prolonged suffering. Chronic illnesses and their management are on an upward trend globally and the increasing cost for dedicated medical treatments became a widespread burden to many. Quality health care has gradually become exclusive.

A major problem of the general health care system is that nearly every sick person receives treatment by the method of prescribed medicines, while other forms of therapy may be more promising.  As a result, we ended up with a health care system where illnesses and symptoms are merely managed, leaving the root cause of a disease untouched.

 

Unfortunately, our health care system has fully turned into a well-adjusted business model. Its aim is no longer health promotion, but convincing doctors to prescribe more drugs.

Today’s evidence-based medicine is defined and financed by pharmaceutical companies where one hand washes the other. They help doctors release guidelines for the management of chronic illness, but for some reason, we do not see decreasing rates of the chronic sick. Instead, we have more people who are getting sick from drug complications.

To solve this health care crisis, we need to think outside the box. If we want to cut our health care costs, people have to know how to promote their health independently. This is not an impossible dream since scientific knowledge has proven again and again that an optimal healthy lifestyle is the key to longevity and good health.