It just seemed too absurd to be true, but there it was in
August 2, 2004 edition of Newsweek I picked up other day: "According to HealthGrades, health-care-rating organization that conducted study, needless deaths averaged 195,000 a year in 2000, 2001, and 2002. 'That's equivalent of 390 jumbo jets full of people dying each year,' says Dr. Samantha Collier, vice president of medical affairs." My mind struggled feebly to conjure up 390 jumbo jets going up in flames - it imploded hopelessly on crash number 8.
I started to wonder what it all meant. How could so many “needless” deaths be happening when we're so advanced technologically? Why is this carnage allowed to continue unabated and who hell's responsible, anyway?
I came to conclusion that there weren't any good answers for any of it. The people who work in hospitals are fallible, just like you and me. The difference is, when you or I make a mistake, someone's life isn't hanging in balance.
Still - 390 jumbo jets full of innocent people - what a tragedy. Most people checking into hospital expect to be checking out in a few days - not checking out permanently. And statistics just keep getting worse.
So what can a person do? Most people feel pretty powerless when it comes to protecting their health. If they get sick, they rely on existing healthcare and submit themselves to conventional medical treatment. But that's not health care. That's sickness care.
Real health care is about building health from ground up. Sickness care is about cutting, radiating, poisoning and taking toxic prescription drugs.
So, way I see it, there are two main options. Be good little medical consumers and go along with healthcare program that we've all been taught to buy in to - or start thinking outside healthcare box.
Personally, my advice is to be pro-active. For many, that's a scary option but it doesn't have to be. There are some great, emerging nutritional technologies that are proving very effective in warding off a wide variety of physical ailments. For instance, for past two years, I've been researching a new form of supplement called glyconutrition. This technology is a spin off of recent Nobel Prize winning scientific breakthroughs in field of glycobiology.
