There is a lot of talk these days about health insurance. There are many different plans HMOs, PPOs, EPOs, POS, and XYZ that people have ?coverage? with. As a health care provider, what this amounts to for me is an alphabet soup that drives my staff crazy with paperwork and patients who are dissatisfied when they find out that their plan is very restricted.

For most people this is old news. Most people are unhappy with the way the health care system is currently set up in this country even though our politicians have been working hard for years to make changes. The problem is not caused by doctors or even drug companies. The problem comes from the insurance companies and managed care networks. With deep pockets, they carry a lot of power and influence.

Since insurance companies are public companies their profits are displayed on Wall Street. When their profits are high (and they are extremely high) it can give people a false sense that the economy is doing well when in reality it isn’t. Many industries (families) are struggling to make ends meet while the super rich get ridiculously rich.

Unfortunately, with insurance, health care has gone from a service of helping people to a business about making huge amounts money. For me, the scariest part of the problem is that the majority of people I come into contact with believe that excellent quality health care is something that they can not afford. This simply is not true and I am going to explain to you shortly why this is not true.

Many times I will meet someone who doesn’t have any insurance coverage. (And there are more people than you think) They will say something like this, “Dr Mike, I know I need to get in to see you but I can’t afford it because I
don’t have any health insurance.”

My response is usually something like this… “How much
does it cost?” They will usually give me a blank stare and say, “I don’t know.” My point is most people really don’t know but have been programmed to believe that getting quality care is something they can’t afford without insurance.

I can’t speak for any other office, but this is certainly not the case in my office. My fees are very reasonable to begin with and in nine years of practice I have never turned a patient away from care for financial reasons. I have however, turned people away for not making their health the priority it needs to be.

Let’s take a look at the term health care. This term really means the process of taking care of our health. For example, if I were to say car care, you would instantly understand what I mean. You would start talking about the services that you have done to your car on a regular basis in order to keep it healthy such as rotating tires, maintaining oil, changing oil, maintaining brakes, maintaining tires, etc. But when it comes to the term health care, people instantly get in to the conversation of HMO’s /insurance, socialized medicine, and Hillary Clinton.

People know that they are responsible for the health of their car or home, but somewhere along the line we have been taught that someone else is responsible for our health. My friends, this is a huge error in thinking and it needs to be changed otherwise we will continue to spend billions of dollars on “health care”every year and still have horrible overall health statistics in this country.

The time to change is now and it all starts with our own ideas about health and how to take care of ourselves. The only real health insurance we have is doing certain things every day, week, month or year to actually improve our health. Paying insurance premiums to protect us “in case” we get sick is not doing anything to improve our health. All you have to do is look at health statistics and you will see that the countries with the least amount of technology have the highest level of health.

Let’s review some of the fundamentals strategies and also some new ideas we can implement to improve our health immediately. As you will see most of these are free or very affordable.

The first step is to forgive everyone in your life who you believe has done you wrong. Let them go and forgive them.
So many people are walking around with so much bitterness it is literally killing them. The bitterness is spilling over into every area of their lives ruining relationships, draining energy, and sabotaging their dreams and happiness.

All this bitterness and hurt will ultimately destroy their health. If there is anyone in your life you have had a falling out with, call them and tell them you love them and miss them and try to patch that relationship up. If they refuse your gift, you have lost nothing and gained a ton. And who knows maybe with some time they will come around.

Live life to the fullest each day. Take time to smell the roses. This sounds so simple, but how many of us actually do
this? This is so important. What is all this busyness for? Where are we going? Is it worth it? Will we be happy when
we get there? Take time to do the things you really want to do and love to do. It is OK to just have fun. Be like a kid
again. This has tremendous power to keep us healthy, happy, young and sane. Never work for money alone. Find work that is satisfying, you are good at and that you have a passion for. Now I know this may not be possible immediately, but we can all work towards finding work that is good for us and good for others. As far as I’m concerned, working for money alone is the equivalent of selling our souls to the devil. It will come back to haunt us at some point.When it comes to work and your income remember the Good Shepard principle. Sheep follow their Shepard blindly knowing that he will take care of them and even lay down His life for his flock. Trust that everything will work out and know that you will always have everything you need and much more.

Remember to breathe properly. Any health system that doesn’t address breathing is not a health system at all. The better your body is able to deliver oxygen to the cells the more powerful you become. It is that simple. Concentrate on NOT holding your breath. Research shows that proper breathing stimulates the immune system more than anything.

Drink half of your body weight in pure filtered water everyday. Our bodies are 70% water. 70% of the planet is covered with water. Without any in about a week we are dead. About 70% of your diet should consist of high water content foods. The only foods that fall into this category are fresh, raw fruits and vegetables.

These are the foods created by the Creator in His kitchen.They are perfect for His creations to consume. They are also good for His environment.

Remember to recharge your nerve energy by getting plenty of rest and sleep. When nerve energy is low we get tired and the system malfunctions. When the system malfunctions, this can lead to subluxations in the spine. Subluxations deplete even more nerve energy and prevent us from functioning optimally and a downward spiral is set up.

Remember the four essentials for health are: oxygen, water, food and nerve impulse.Remove any of these and we die. Diminish the quality or quantity of any of these and our health starts to deteriorate. Till next time, take care
and live life fully.