The older one gets, the more one appreciates one’s health. Being and staying healthy is easy to take for granted, but these days there’s an army of well-heeled interests competing for the dollars that are to be made from illness. Big pharmaceutical companies, the real drug pushers in our society, market their concoctions directly to the consumer. The medical profession and the insurance industry have joined in, and together they push a combination of drugs and procedures that make some people fabulously wealthy, but do little to boost the public health or enhance quality of life. After all, if you are healthy or if you get well, they lose money. So there is constant pressure to do things and consume things that are guaranteed to make you sick.
The most popular drugs such as Lipitor, Xanax and Viagra generate insane profits. A hundred 1mg Xanax tablets that retail for $136 cost less than 25¢ to produce. Yes, you read that right. A hundred 20mg Prozac retail for $248, yet the active ingredients cost only 11¢. That’s a whopping 224,973% markup. Click here to learn more about the outrageous markup of pharmaceuticals. No wonder doctors have become pill-pushers – at those rates everybody gets rich. Everybody that is except the poor consumer. And no wonder we’re spending billions on alternative therapies. Used to be, doctors were people you could trust. But with the incestuous and evil relationship between the insurance, drug and medical industries, you’d be insane to trust any doctor without a second, third, and fourth opinion.
Basic health comes from eating right, getting enough exercise and rest, and avoiding things that make you sick. This has been true since we crawled out of the primordial mud. These days there’s a war on health supplements and organic foods. A recent report claims ‘no benefit’ from organic food. That’s insane. One recent study shows that half the produce people eat is contaminated with chemical residues. The Mayo Clinic suggests that eating organic food is far superior to conventionally-grown stuff. And although we may not ever think about the suffering of the animals that went into our burgers or sausages, thee’s karma involved. It costs a bit more to eat healthy, but that cost is more than offset by freedom from doctor’s visits.
It’s easy to see that people are not only sicker these days, it’s also mental. People aren’t grounded, and they don’t feel part of anything in which they can take pride or satisfaction. Bizarre and dangerous behaviors are increasing, and a big part of this can be traced to mainstream “food” and the drugs that doctors push. Take the time to learn about ways to be healthy. Turn off the television. Get out and walk. Find ways to help people – you’ll discover that in so doing you’re helping yourself equally.
Most of all, don’t let talking heads and pundits fill you with fear. Life on this planet has always been hazardous, but that’s never been a reason not to be joyful. Life doesn’t last forever, and never has. But life is magical and it’s meant to be enjoyed. Our mainstream culture has completely lost sight of this basic fact.