Choosing Health Part 1: Part of the problem or the solution . . .

Author: Mary Westley

Part 1 of a series of articles exploring the concept of accepting responsibility for your own health and Wellbeing from an Ayurvedic perspective. Best suited to those open to a paradigm shift.

I was scrolling thru the usual FB posts this morning, many about what is wrong in the world, and I must admit they are all getting a bit repetitious. One was about budget cuts and the Immigration Department deporting old people to save pension costs because they are easier to catch and less likely to find their way home. In one way, this is funny, but in another way it’s scary. It started me thinking about our expectations as a society, at what point are they simply unsustainable under the current model and do we have a responsibility to revisit some of those expectations.

Here are my thoughts in conjunction with our health system in Australia, although I have some difficulty calling it that, because there really is very little about it that is ‘healthy’.

The cost of the current system is out of control. Demand is increasing. There are daily stories about how sick and unhealthy we are as a society. The scary thing is that each and every year the demands and the costs are increasing. The health budget is quickly beginning to resemble a bottomless pit and there really is no reprieve in sight. The current approach of tinkering around the edges to create efficiencies can be likened to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The ship is sinking folks and we need a new boat i.e. a new (or better still an ancient) paradigm for managing our health.

So, on one hand we have the health system requiring more money to meet continually increasing demands, (incidence of disease) and costs (new drugs and technology). In response the government of the day proposes to raise revenue by increasing the GST or even worse still, selling off Medicare. These suggestions meet with fairly typical responses, “”how terrible, how can they, this shouldn’t be happening, they should manage things better”.

Can I tell you what I think is terrible, what shouldn’t be happening and what should be managed differently?

As a society, right here in Australia, for all our technology and material wealth, we actually eat and live in a way that creates disease. As a society, we have never been unhealthier or sicker and almost 80% of conditions are diet and lifestyle related. That means 80% of health funding is spent on conditions which are preventable. I am not being some sort a new age health nut here, this is a statement that the medical profession itself quotes. Think about it…80%.

So my line of thinking at the moment is to ask the question; is it fair to decry the government’s budget management efforts and at the same time fail to accept responsibility for our own health?

While ever we choose to take a drug or have a procedure to mask a symptom/s so we can keep doing what we are doing, over a diet or lifestyle adjustment that will remove the cause and correct the symptom/s, we are part of the problem…and as such…are we in a position to point a finger at a broken system?

Interesting question isn’t it?

What thoughts does this bring up for you?

Did you say, “yes, but…”.

Be careful, ‘but’ can be a dangerous word. It usually means we are about to offer an excuse which absolves ourselves of responsibility, and no one is more responsible for your health and wellbeing than you are.

I am going to continue this line of thought over the next few days/weeks exploring:

• why we are getting sicker
• our body’s tolerance level for overindulgence
• the Ayurvedic understanding of the disease process
• what underpins accepting responsibility for our own health and wellbeing
• 10 simple steps to eating and living well

 
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