This will be the conclusion of my thoughts on how to achieve the best health we can. The previous entry was to give you the context of how and why I got into the subject in the first place, thus all the personal stuff. This entry will hopefully provide some ideas and at least questions you may wish to ask your doctors in the future.

As I see it there are some roadblocks we all face on the road to good health. First is that doctors are not trained much and do not practice much preventative medicine. The insurance system we have pays them to fix things that have broken, but does not pay much for preventing things not to break. Some examples: we all know about getting our blood glucose level checked. That will likely tell you if you are a diabetic or not or are at least borderline A12 helps do that as well. There is another test however that can often give you a much earlier warning and give you time to possibly avoid becoming a diabetic in the first place. That test is checking your fasting blood insulin level. That tells you how hard the pancreas is working to maintain the correct glucose level. If it is going up over time you can take measures to prevent type 2 diabetes in the first place. I asked our local doc to test Lesley and I both. He told me that before medicare would pay for the test he had to find a medical reason to do the test. I told him my grandmother was a type 1 diabetic. He then tested both of us, as Lesley’s mum was also diabetic. A good healthy range is between 2-5. I was 2.7, Lesley was 2.6. The point is that if this were a usual part of annual physicals, much sickness could be avoided in advance. I asked the doc why this was not routinely done and he said “George if I have 100 patients there would only be 2 or 3 like you that actually want to know these things”. I could give you many other stories like this but I hope you get the idea.

The next roadblock we face are the drug companies. We must remember their primary focus is making a profit. Remember that we as patients want pills that instantly and easily fix our problem. Thus, that is what they try to provide. They make little money telling us to eat better and exercise more. That is one reason we are running out of antibiotics. We only use them for short durations occasionally. The companies would prefer to develop drugs that we will take for the rest of our lives for chronic conditions.

The third roadblock is the food industry. To be fair, the food industry is happy to make whatever food we demand, be it healthy or not. The problem is that we want the lowest price possible and so that is what we get. Mass produced food where quantity is more important than quality. We also want it to taste great and last a long time. No wonder modern food is full of sugar, preservatives, chemical flavorings, cheap substitutes for real food.

The last roadblock is the person we see in the mirror. You may have picked up some of the things from what I have already written, that are self imposed, because that is what we want or are willing to pay for. So what should we do? If having the best health we can is important to us, there are some things we can do. If you are happy as you are about your health, skip this section. If you would like some ideas on how to improve your health, I suggest you have a serious talk with your doctor. There are many books, videos, and courses you can do. Ask the doc for more tests that are forward looking and preventative in nature no just looking for things that are broken or about to break. I suggest a complete lipid test that measures the particle size among other things, blood insulin test, and others as the doc sees fit and ask questions, like what is the optimal range for this test. In our medical system normal only means your level of something is within the range of 95% of the population at large for a given area or state. It even varies by state. So “normal” and healthy are different words with different implications for your health. If you live in an area with high diabetes, having a “normal” glucose level may not mean much. Interestingly more research is coming out all the time proving that more and more health conditions can be mitigated, helped, or sometimes even reversed by just eating healthier food. I could give you many examples including my own battle with colitis, but do your own research as this entry has gone on long enough.

Well that is what I have learned in the past two years, the road took me to places I never knew existed. I hope this has given some the motivation to seek out better food and health care in general. Please note that none of this is intended to apply to anyone in particular or be considered medical advice. As always, get advice and counsel from a doctor before implementing any changes. 

Tea time