If you’re well-educated
and relatively wealthy, you’re
much more likely to live a long
life, with many more disease-free
years. If you’re less fortunate,
both in terms of your education
and means, you won’t fare as well.
Unfortunately, the disparity
in health outcomes between
the rich and poor is continuing
to widen. Of course, education
and economic stability are not
the only social determinants of
disease. Evidence suggests that
one of the most crucial factors
is an individual’s ‘engagement’
with healthcare. But we
need to distinguish between
‘engagement’ and ‘use.’
We know that ‘healthcare’—
better described as ‘disease
care’—can be incredibly
dangerous. In fact, preventable
deaths in hospitals are one
of the greatest sources of risk
in our society. So, avoiding
responsibility for your health—
and handing it to someone in a
white coat when something goes
awry—is a dangerous way to live.
Someone who’s ‘engaged’ in
their healthcare throughout
their life—proactive instead of
reactive—fares much better. This
kind of person takes an interest
in their treatment options and
works with their doctor to really
understand the benefits and risks
for their specific circumstances.
That’s part of engagement,
but not all. It’s also about taking
an interest in choosing healthier
foods. Taking time out to exercise
or relax. Seeking help when life’s
demands start to interfere with
daily life.
An educated person may be
more able to discern relevant
information from the conflicting
noise that comes at them via
media, celebrities and their circle
of friends. And some of these
things are only accessible toRobert Verkerk PhD is the executive and scientific director of the Alliance for Natural Health International, a consumer group that aims to protect our right to natural healthcare and nutrition. For more
information and to get involved, go to http://www.anh-europe.org, or check out ANH’s Facebook and Twitter pages (www.facebook.com/ANHInternational and http://www.twitter.com/anhcampaign).people with disposable income,
as they won’t be covered by
health insurance.
If you’ve got the money, and
you care about your health, you’ll
prioritize this kind of spending.
That’s why the healthiest people
in our societies, and also the
biggest users of non-standard,
‘alternative’ therapies—despite
their being marginalized by
mainstream medicine—are the
most financially well off.
We’re told that narrowing
health inequality requires
that the social determinants,especially education and
financial independence, be
addressed. But this encourages
disengagement and then
implies—when bodies start
breaking down from abuse
by junk food and unhealthy
lifestyles—that the healthcare
system people know and trust is
the only place to get help.
Maintaining the status quo
involves building trust in the
mainstream model and breeding
distrust in the alternative system.Rob Verkerk The Politics of Health
Access to drugs, vaccines and
surgery are made to look like the
only viable options for the less
privileged. But this is an illusion
that lacks scientific basis and
relies on negative publicity about
the more natural, less drug-
dependent system used to great
effect by more educated and
wealthier people
What would happen if the
poorest, most disengaged
people were to able interact
with the more progressive and
holistic model of healthcare
that so many of us are callingfor? Primary care and family
physicians, as the first line of
care, need to be trained quite
differently to look more broadly
at the body’s functions.
The medical curriculum
has been co-opted by
pharmaceutical interests, with
doctors turned into glorified
drug salesmen. If doctors spoke
a language that wasn’t filled
with technical jargon, they
could enter into a much more
constructive, collaborativedecision-making process with
their patients.
Clinicians also need to
be trained to search out the
underlying causes of disease,
rather than focusing on treating
symptoms. And what if we all got
used to having routine check-
ups to find out how we were
functioning across multiple
domains of health, so we could
modify behaviors before a
disease actually manifested?
These are all fully accounted
for in the health sustainability
blueprint of the Alliance for
Natural Health (see my column
in theWDDTY March issue).
Even if we assume no change
in the level of engagement by a
hypothetical patient with a low
level of education and very little
cash, if that patient walks into a
doctor’s office with severe knee
pain, a mainstream doctor might
prescribe NSAIDs at best, while
a holistically trained doctor
would look for other signs of
poor health, ask questions about
the patient’s lifestyle, and take
the opportunity to draw a blood
sample and order a cluster of
highly informative tests.
By encouraging the patient
to join a group of others with
similar issues, under the
guidance of a health coach,
they could be inspired
to lose weight, exercise
more, consume an anti-
inflammatory diet and find
better ways of transforming
stress. Not only would the knee
problem go away, the risk of
future heart disease, cancer
and type 2 diabetes would be
massively reduced too.
This is the kind of upstream,
sustainable health system we
all need to be part of, regardless
of our education or means.
Don’t think you can wait for
mainstream medicine to do it. It
won’t—too many are benefiting
from the status quo. Join our
movement for change that’s
working to make this a reality.
Visit http://www.anhinternational.org
for more information.Why being engaged—with your health—is vital for a long life
A LONG
ENGAGEMENT
Someone who’s
‘engaged’ in
their healthcare
throughout their
life—proactive
instead of reactive—
fares much better
FACEBOOK.COM/WDDTYAUNZ ISSUE 01 | AUG/SEP 2019 | WDDTY 33
OPINION