I ain’t no doctor
a weekly column by charles faris, hhc
All politics are internal
In the spirit of the week, and playing off my recent (and to be continued) musings on democracy, todays topic is something that has been batted about a bit from podiums all across the land during the course of this years presidential campaign: the state of health care in America.
Because I ain’t no doctor, I’m not going to talk about insurance, hmo’s, hospital and clinic visits, costs and side effects of pharmaceuticals, medicaid, medicare, national health insurance, or any of the other talking points we are traditionally bombarded with. Because I ain’t no doctor I am going to talk about health rather than sickness, and because I ain’t no politician I’m going to talk about not what some institution can do for your health, and rather what you can do about your health.
health is an inside game
So all the pundits agree, the state of public health in america is a mess. We are fatter, sicker, and more stressed out than ever before, and we are spending a greater percentage of our earnings for the privilege. I’ll let the doctors and the politicians talk about what we can do to reign in the health care system, and insure that everyone has adequate access. I’m much more interested in how to bypass that system altogether.
Confession time. Until the State of Massachusetts required me to purchase health insurance, I spent over 20 years without the burden of monthly payments, fear of losing my job and thereby my benefits, etc. In fact, between the years of 1986 and 2008 I have made exactly one visit to a doctor, and that was to sew up a nasty gash in my shin that resulted from a bit of a misunderstanding between myself and the Pacific Ocean back in 1992. One visit. I removed the stitches myself.
Twenty years of no doctor visits, no prescription drugs, no shots or vaccines. Did i mention that I’m not really sure what the flu is?
So perhaps I am a bit extreme, although I will also confess to having made sporadic good use of acupuncturists, chiropractors, and bodyworkers when needed. In general, however, I have taken upon myself the burden of my own health. I eat moderately well, I practice yoga, I walk and ride my bike from time to time (although not as much as I used to…), and mostly, I have a very positive attitude about my health.
As my friend Naomi Dunford has pointed out, self-reliance is good, specialization is dangerous, and to paraphrase, “diversification is the key to health, security, and freedom”.
Take two squirts and don’t call me in the morning
I’ve been known to take large amounts of echinacea when I feel something coming on. I’ve also been known to be very protective about my sleep when i start to feel a bit run down. I eat better then, as well, consuming more than my usual amounts of fresh greens and fresh soups, and drinking massive amounts of fresh water and herbal teas.
Oh, and I stay as far away as possible from anything posing as a food. If it has a label I generally avoid it, and if it lists any ingredient on the label that isn’t plain english, I definitely avoid it. This can be annoying to others, I admit, especially family members; and in my own experience clean food, moderate exercise, positive attitude, and a regular stress-relieving spiritual practice are pretty much the ticket to good health.
Save the children
It wasn’t always so. When I was growing up I ate the worst foods imagineable;
- canned chow mein,
- hamburger helper,
- white bread,
- candy, candy and more candy,
- canned everything,
- denatured everything,
- artificially preserved and colored everything.
And I got lot’s of shots and drugs from the doctors that my parents took me to, including something like 5 years of tetracycline during my mid to late teens.
Thank God for the poverty for the emancipated college student! As soon as I had to pay for those drugs away they went. I was still eating macaroni and cheese from a box, ramen noodles, and lovely green pistachio pudding…the food transformation has been a long uphill climb, a story for another day. And funny thing…the longer it has been since I visited a doc and took home a prescription, the less I’ve gotten sick, the easier I’ve made it through the winter with minimal sniffles and such.
The secret to health
The more I’ve educated myself about food and exercise and herbs, the more I’ve empowered myself around my own health choices, the healthier I have become. And the healthier I have become, the easier it has become for me to see the correlations between my diet and my health, between my mental attitude and my health, between my physical activity and my health.
And I have begun to notice what I consider to be the most powerful secret to living a life of vibrant health. Are you ready? Here it is;
It’s all about the context. Health in and of itself is worth absolutely nothing. What is infinitely valuable is what you want to be healthy for. If you have no reason to be healthy it’s going to be a challenge getting there, and it will mean nothing to you once you are there. Health without meaning is invisible, scentless, tasteless, untouchable. And the more you infuse your desire for health with meaning, the easier it will be to achieve, and the meaning itself will be the vista, the scent, the taste, the touch.
The smiles of your children or grandchildren will be the vision of your health, the scent of flowers in the garden will be the scent of your health…Take those metaphors where you will, the secret of health is what you are using your health for. Rather than asking how to get healthy, ask what you are going to use that health for.
So leave sickness to the “health professionals”, and partake of them as needed. And leave health to yourself, and the millions of reasons you wish to live a life of happiness, vitality, enthusiasm, and love. And never forget, we are going to solve this “national health-care crisis” one person at a time. May the next person be you!
Charles Faris, hhc
“i ain’t no doctor”
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