Shifting the Healthcare Paradigm

Today I want to blog starting a conversation about the healthcare debate. Not the debate about whether we should have a single-payer healthcare system in place of private insurance. Not the debate about whether compelling individuals to purchase private health insurance is constitutional or not (it appears the SCOTUS will be making that determination for us soon enough).  Not the debate about what the various Medicare options should cover, or whether access to affordable (or free) healthcare is a basic human right as suggested by some.

No, the conversation I wish to begin is about our understanding, our definition, of health and our understanding of healthcare.  It is often critiqued that in the US we don’t have a healthcare system, but rather something like a sickness treatment system, or even a death prevention system.  What I take these criticisms to mean is that we have an industry and infrastructure better adapted to treat injuries than develop injury prevention.  A healthcare paradigm better equipped to “treat” diabetes and the symptoms of obesity than cure and prevent it in the first place. And industry quick to adopt more pain killers, cholesterol pills and injections of all kinds, but very slow and wary of considering non-pharmaceutical approaches, alternative medicine, preventative care, and the simple power of consuming real, healthy, whole food in place manufactured healthy and food-like products.

The root (or at least a root) of this paradigm has historically been money. And I don’t just mean money within the industry: we’re talking the broader economy here.  And money continues to be a driving factor. However, on top of that is now a population conditioned or accustomed to thinking about health in this way, making their messaging all that more effective and acceptable.

When my back aches, I take a pain killer (consider the alternatives).  When my stomach hurts I take some pink stuff.  When my cholesterol is out of whack I take a combination cholesterol absorption inhibitors and statin. When I reach clinical obesity I reach for an ephedrine, or consider surgery.  When I become diabetic, I start daily injections.

I hope you get the picture: a medical solution to every health issue, rather than a healthcare and wellness focused approach to problems, and a healthy lifestyle to prevent as many of them as possible in the first place.

This is not good.

Comments welcome.

An Introduction

Imagine a world in which healthcare is about optimizing health, not just about  preventing disease, healing injuries and treating chronic conditions.  A world in which we all recalibrate our health-o-meters (feel free to use a less goofy term when imagining this in your mind’s eye) such that an average day means you’re feeling great: aches, pains, low-energy and other all-too-common modern maladies are a rare occurrence: not just part of life (along with the daily pharmaceuticals and stimulants to treat those maladies).  Realizing that vision of the world is the goal of Criterion Med Inc.  And working with you dear readers to articulate, work towards and ultimately realize that vision is my goal through this blog!

I will devote this blog to introducing myself and attempting to give a sense of where I’ve been, and where this blog will take us.  I am what’s commonly referred to in the fitness and nutrition world as a former fat-body (FFB). While I grew up relatively active, I ate a lot, and a lot of the wrong kind of food.  I was probably at my worst at 15 where then at 5’8” I weighed in at over 240 pounds, and was well on my way to type II diabetes.

Then I had my two health-related epiphanies (yes, unfortunately one just wasn’t enough).  The first was brought on by the Banff Mountain Film Festival where for the first time I saw an amazing video on ice-climbing and became determined to do it.  The second was during my time abroad, living amongst a population that didn’t have double digit obesity rates and being as overweight as I was, I found myself in the minority, and for the first time realized how not-normal my health situation should be. (Expect to see blog posts in the future discussing the normalizing effect of unhealthy habits, behaviors and conditions, and how we might, as individuals, seek to counter it, and shift the paradigm.)  My transformation culminated in my participation in a winter quadrathlon (cross-country skiing, snow showing, running and biking if you’re interested).

By the time I left for college I was well on the path to health-nut status: this was becoming a true passion.  From there I joined a search and rescue team, and would eventually become a team medic, getting both my standard first responder certification (something one would do to work on an ambulance) and my Wilderness First Responder license.  I moved into personal training, and really dove into the nutrition aspect of it.  For a bit I even contemplated amateur body-building, and got myself back up to a lean 220.

While I maintain my passion for all things outdoor, these days my focus has been largely on the nutrition, conditioning and training around ring and combat sports: boxing, Thai boxing, jujitsu, wrestling, judo and mixed martial arts.  I currently work and train with a number of professional fighters (you may have even seen a few on TV if you follow the sport).

This blog is  written from the perspective of the former fat body, an athlete, a foodie, a medical professional, and a personal trainer.  And it exists to in order to share information which I hope will improve our quality of life.

I invite questions, comments and suggestions.