23/04/2019
When I was a Physical Therapy student I did an internship at a hospital in Houston that was world renowned for its treatment in heart disease.
On the very first floor of this hospital was a McDonald’s.
I remember seeing nurses, doctors and other health care professionals eating lunch there and thinking…
“Something is not right.”
On one occasion I treated a patient who asked me to take him down for a Big Mac shortly after he had heart surgery.
This felt icky to me. I became confused.
At that time… I knew very little about nutrition but I could definitely sense that fast food was not healthy food.
Why would this type of food be allowed in a hospital where the focus should be on health?
My skepticism of the conventional healthcare model grew when I began treating patients in outpatient Physical Therapy…
I’d work with people who we’re dealing with musculoskeletal issues such as herniated disks, sciatica, neck pain, shoulder pain and so on…
As I’d take their history I’d always ask them how their pain started and what they first did about it. 9 times of 10 their answer was…
“Oh… I took pain meds.”
This was frustrating to me and I began seeing that we had a health care system that was more interested in treating symptoms rather getting to the root issue.
My education as a Doctor of Physical Therapy taught me that most of physical pains people experience are a result of musculoskeletal imbalances and poor movement patterns.
If I educated patients about this, taught them the right exercises and restored proper movement there was no need for them to numb their pain with medications.
It also saved them from having a costly surgery down the road… which I was seeing didn’t always have positive outcomes.
Later in my career I began doing Home Health Physical Therapy and worked with people who we’re not functionally independent to the point where they could drive to a clinic on their own.
I treated many people with cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and morbid obesity.
As I’d walk in their homes I’d carefully observe the environment and began making connections…
I noticed the way the home smelled, the foods in the pantry, what was being watched on TV and the messages that we’re being sent.
I began seeing my patients as people who had been brainwashed into eating toxic foods and taking pills to treat symptoms.
My breaking point came when I treated an obese child with diabetes.
When I walked in her home I saw a mother and father who both sat in electrical wheel chairs worth over $20k.
Her brother was also obese and had little energy.
I looked over at the kitchen counter and saw nothing but fruit loops and a thick row of mediations for both the children and parents.
I then watched an obese nurse come in and give each family member an injection.
I became sad.
At that point I knew that I could no longer work in this system. I felt incredibly out of alignment and knew that something had to change.
Ever since then I’ve made it my life’s mission to help people restore their natural health through better ways of eating, moving, thinking and being in this world.
The truth is that we have a healthcare system that knows nothing about food and a food industry that knows nothing about health.
Many of our healthcare issues that we’re challenged with have much more to do with our environment that they do genetics.
We’ve been treating symptoms rather than going after the root cause. It hasn’t been so much about “healthcare” as it is about “sick care.”
It’s as if we’ve been busy trying to mop up the floor without having the awareness that what we most need to do is turn off the kitchen sink.
This is why we're in a health crisis.
The time to take responsibility for your health and ultimately your life is NOW.
No one can do this for you.
Do not get tricked into identifying yourself as a diagnosis given to you by a healthcare system that has radically missed the mark.
You are NOT your diagnosis.
You’re a human being who needs…
REAL whole foods
Lot of water
Consistent movement
Plenty of rest
Time to breathe
Sunshine
Play
… and Community
These are the least things that will make the most difference.
That’s what true health care needs to look like.
I’ll leave it with this…
“The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”
-Thomas Edison
Much love 🙏❤️
CW
