The predominant medical system in the US is the allopathic model. I have found from personal experience that this system works usually quite well for diagnostics, trauma, conditions requiring surgical intervention, as well as treatments for prolonging life.

Where I feel our allopathic model falls short is encouraging prevention of illnesses and avoidable conditions, treating certain types of chronic conditions, and providing quality of life in spite of prolonging it. A wise doctor I visited once told me that a way to make a decision to have or not have a procedure, was to determine if you have more good days or more bad days, within a particular time frame. His next question was, are you willing to live with the outcome if the results are not 100% successful and possibly giving side-effects that are worse than the original issues?

I think many people put all of their trust and faith into their doctor’s opinions or suggestions without doing much research of their own. Therefore, they lack the information to better determine what is best for their individual conditions.  When confronted with a serious condition, they feel they lack medical knowledge and therefore options beyond what their doctor might suggest. When things don’t go well with the treatments, procedures, surgeries, etc., they can’t always understand that doctors are human and don’t always make the best decisions in spite of trying their best to do so. 

I think if people would take more responsibility towards their knowledge of healthcare and their own health status prior to finding themselves in critical situations, we would have a much different healthcare system. The CDC reported the top causes of death in the US as of 2019 were heart disease, cancer, and unintended injuries¹. Overall, the risks of the top 10 causes of death all can be lowered with lifestyle choices of diet, exercise, and management of stress. A John Hopkins report of 2018 reported that medical errors was the 3^rd highest cause of death in the US². My point in noting these statistics is that if the total number of these illnesses and errors was much less, then there would be less people having to deal with these critical types of decisions with or without their doctor’s input. I am aware that this is really an unrealistic expectation as the numbers go up every year. However, if doctors are to be held to such a high standard of perfection, why shouldn’t the individual have similar accountability for their own level of self-care?

Obviously, some situations warrant a decision at the moment, regardless of how the person got to the point of immediate concern.  In this type of event, I would hope that the healthcare professionals involved would have much relative knowledge and medical experience at this point to exercise wisdom in making the correct decisions. From there the patient needs to decide whether to trust in what they know to be true and accurate and/or to have faith in what is unknown and unseen.

References:

¹ https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db395.htm

²https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/study_suggests_medical_errors_now_third_leading_cause_of_death_in_the_us

I write often about topics that affect our health and well-being. Additionally, I teach and offer lecture about qigong, tai chi, baguazhang, and yoga. I also have hundreds of FREE education video classes, lectures and seminars available on my YouTube channel at:https://www.youtube.com/c/MindandBodyExercisesMind and Body Exercises on Google: https://posts.gle/aD47Qo

Jim Moltzan

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