Fitness Triumphs over Medicine -- one Aussie's thoughts

Here's an article from an Austrialian talking about the Triumph of Fitness over Medicine.  The article is his but I have to say I agree with a lot of what he has said.  I am looking forward to hearing what you think.....

.......You're not wrong.



Here's an article I drafted recently based on the Australian experience - where despite record levels of spending on medical care, the health of the population continues to decline.


I don't like the word 'prevention'. 'Preventive health' is medical speak.


You don't prevent health you create it yourself.
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FITNESS TRIUMPHS OVER MEDICINE


If you ever you wanted evidence that the best bet for departments of health throughout Australia was fitness not medicine, all you had to do was watch the final of the Biggest Loser.


In the race to improve the health of Australians the Commonwealth Government continues to spend infinitely more on medical research, surgeries and hospitals that it does on fitness. However, you can put down the glasses, the race is over, it’s fitness first, daylight second, medicine a distant third.

I’m a big fan of the Biggest Loser. Where else can you see people go from fat to thin, unhealthy to fit, sad to happy, all in a few short months? Certainly not in many surgeries and pharmacies around Australia


The Commonwealth Government’s timid response to the epidemic of personally generated body system dysfunctions - metabolic, musculo-skeletal and psychological - is to set up a toothless Preventive Health Agency with the bulk of the ‘illhealth’ budget still ending up in the pockets of an increasingly ineffective, expensive and bloated medical industry: preventive health $145m versus Medical industry $68B.


So, here’s the blue print for health, fitness and wellbeing in this country.


* we need to make a distinction between what's medical and what's not. Too many people are going to doctors for things doctors can't fix and for things that would best be attended to by someone else, like a nurse, naturopath, counsellor or fitness practitioner.


1. Then we need to make the distinction between what's a disease and what's a personally-generated body system dysfunction. If you've got a disease, a medical complaint or your dysfunction is too far gone, you need medical treatment. Otherwise start working on yourself.


1. Anyone with any of the personally generated dysfunctions who is prepared to donate 4 weeks of their time to work on their fitness can have free access to fitness instruction at a fitness centre close to their home. Getting fit becomes their full time job. No pussy footing, no molly codling, just 8 hours a day devoted to restoring poor function to good with a balanced health, fitness, wellbeing and nutrition program.


* the health of Australians to improve, departments of health around Australia have to lever the fitness industry into the front line of primary health care.


You know that the bulk of the illhealth problems in this country are fitness problems and you know you can’t solve a fitness problem with a medical solution.


* the current Department of Health into two to form a Department of Health, Fitness and Wellbeing on one side of the ledger and a Department of Medicine on the other, with the current budget for general practice being split evenly between general practice and the new Department of Health, Fitness and Wellbeing.


* Commonwealth Government has to publicly acknowledge that in a toxic, sedentary society, that’s under nourished, over fed and stressed to the max, the medical model is the wrong model for improving health, fitness and wellbeing. Over the last 35 years it’s had a good trial and come up short.
* Commonwealth Government has to recognize the effect that the practice of junk medicine is having on health standards, junk medicine being the prescription of medications which mask symptoms rather than restoring poor function to good.
John Miller


So....what do you think???  Click the comment icon and share your thoughts.

Better Dibetes Type II control

With diabetes (especially Type 2) running rampant in our population, here is something that might help us control our sugar levels.

We all know exercise is a great way to help the body control our blood sugar but a recent study reported Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise reports that creatine supplementation for those who are exercising works better at improving A1C levels than does exercise alone!

Interesting, a relatively easy fix and worth talking to your doc about!!

Mindfulness and the acceptance of the unfair

For those of you that also read Eating Coach, you will already know what a huge proponent of Mindfulness Training I am. 

This article from Biosingularity, discusses how mindfulness training effects decision making -- moving away from the more emotional areas of the brain and increasing the ability of the brain to make a decision based on more rational information of the present moment.

Eating too much, impulsively buying things we can't afford, acting out because life isn't fair -- all of these seemingly hard to control impulses might be brought under better management with mindfulness training.

At best, it could change your life -- at worst, you've devoted some time to a undertaking that didn't pan out.  Might just be worth a try!

An unusual vomiting syndrome

Although it is unusual, cyclical vomiting syndrome is worth knowing about.  It is caused by the vomiting center of the brain being triggered -- it isn't a stomach issue at all!  It's unique aspects are:

• The attacks are sudden, with an abrupt start and end point
• The symptoms displayed during an attack tend to be similar to previous attacks
• Once the episode is over the patient quickly feels well again, as if she had never been sick at all

Interested to know more?  Check out this great article from Children's Hospital Boston!

 

Positivity

Here's a neat positivity test.  A couple of weeks ago, at BorgessAthlete, I talked about positive to negative interaction ratios and some of the research done by Marcial Losada on what it takes to have a team (athletic or work-related) flourish (or languish).

The same principles apply with the emotions you feel within yourself.  How did your day stack up to the goal positivity ratio of 3:1?  Take the test and find out.

Then....if you're not happy with the results and you realize you want more positivity in your life, check out this website from the Happiness Project.

Remember:  what you think is that which you create!  --make it GREAT!

How do you measure success? Perhaps it's time for a tune up.

What is success?

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty;

To find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived;

This is to have succeeded.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thought for the Day.....

“statis is achieved through dynamism… constant change is a form of equilibrium” --Gretel Ehrlich