The Gaps in Our Healthcare (Which Affects Everyone)

By: J.A, Writer for Hope Instilled

What are the Gaps in Healthcare?

If you have a chronic illness, you may already know that there are major gaps in conventional healthcare systems. Does your conventional doctor not understand your health condition? Are they unable to find root causes? And I don’t mean the diagnosis of what your illness is. I mean actual root causes as to why you are experiencing the symptoms of your illness. Do they recommend healthy foods and lifestyle changes that can help beyond more exercise? If they do, then that’s great!

Most conventional medical doctors are not very helpful when it comes to chronic illnesses. However, there are holistic treatments and alternative practitioners that fill in these gaps and gray areas. They also help with the explanation as to why more and more people are becoming chronically sick.

Modern/Conventional Medicine is Needed

Even though there is a lot of negative things to say about conventional medicine, I want to make sure it is clear that I still understand it is needed, as do most people who are strong supporters of alternative treatments. It can help with acute illnesses such as flu viruses, rashes, severe allergies, along with broken bones, needed surgeries, and emergency situations. The good alternative healthcare practitioners will not tell you to stop seeing your primary care doctor. Instead, they will offer to be a complementary health care provider to fill in the gray areas and gaps that modern healthcare is not equipped to handle.

Why is Modern Medicine Unfit to Handle Chronic Illnesses?

Modern medicine is all about profits. The big companies like Pharma are not interested in seeing people healed. They want to make money off of people being sick. They make a lot of money from drugs, chemotherapy, expensive medical tests, and surgeries. Additionally, doctors are trained to treat the symptoms of an illness, not to search out the root causes.

Many alternative treatments date back over 100 to 1,000 years. Treatments like chiropractic, naturopathic, osteopathic, and acupuncture, used to be the primary form of medicine. Around the 1920s-1950s, new technology, and the drug industry’s financial backing led to the American Medical Association (AMA) attacking many alternative health care practices accusing them of “quackery.” The AMA made it their mission to attack alternative practitioners like Naturopaths, Chiropractors, and Osteopaths, and with their growing political power, it worked. They even passed more restrictive medical practice laws and had many state naturopathic licensure laws repealed. The public was consumed by the introduction of “miracle drugs,” developments in surgery, and other high-tech medical interventions. Still today, the war rages on with the AMA going after alternative healthcare. The most popular holistic doctors out there are labeled as “quacks,” due to the greedy companies that are threatened by them. Articles will say there is no proof or scientific backing for alternative treatments, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Read more about the AMA’s impact here: Chiropractors and Naturopaths - Are They Dangerous? Even before that, one man changed healthcare in America all for power and money. View the history of Alternative Treatments.

Integrative Medicine is the primary form of medicine that is actually ideal, especially for chronic illnesses. Here is why:

Many alternative healthcare practitioners focus on a full-body approach to understanding illnesses affects the whole body. Symptoms can show up as a migraine, but actually be a problem with the liver. They have tests that modern medicine doctors don’t, that can find root causes for symptoms and most illnesses in general. Plus, they provide natural treatments that usually don’t have side effects, therefore they do more good than harm to the body. But, that’s not all. Many are focused on helping you to live an overall healthier life, and prevent future diseases from occurring. Teaching people how to live a healthier life is key to less chronic illnesses, less need for healthcare in general! What is great about Integrative Medicine is that it combines western/conventional medicine with alternative treatments using the best of both to help a person improve their health. 

Some people will say “But, healthcare has improved, all these advancements in medicine have led to people living longer.” People may be living longer, but people are not living healthier lives free from ongoing illnesses. Yes, we have come a long way with more advanced surgical techniques and medication to treat plagues and extreme viruses, but we have also gone backward. We rely too heavily on modern medicine, people don’t know how to stay healthy, and chronic illness is growing exponentially. One example of this is 20 years ago barely anyone had a gluten intolerance, and now we all know someone with one. Restaurants have changed up their menus to cater to this growing epidemic. And it is not a trend! It is because of commercial farmers and food companies making modifications to farming techniques modifying seeds, adding more gluten, and more pesticides to our food. Read more on the reason for these food sensitivities here: The Secret to Food Sensitivities and Healing Root Causes.

The number of people getting cancer at a younger age is increasing, chronic illnesses are increasing, allergies are increasing. It also seems like more people are developing mental health disorders like anxiety and depression. Around 45% of the population lives with chronic disease! Read more on it here: The Growing Crisis of Chronic Disease in the United States.

Everyone is at risk of becoming chronically sick, there are no exclusions.

Many think that they might get cancer someday, but are not concerned about developing food allergies, migraines, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, thyroid problems, or horrible fatigue. And symptoms like these are the ones gaining in popularity and often multiply and lead to life-altering chronic illnesses. These are the symptoms for illnesses primary medical doctors have no solutions for and often label without a proper diagnosis. Many already struggle with migraines, food allergies, low energy, or fatigue. And these symptoms are not happening with old age like cancer often does. They are happening to millennials, and many people in their 40’s and 50’s. These illnesses are happening largely due to the toxins in our food and environment, along with stress and other unhealthy choices. Read more about how toxins play a role in chronic illnesses here: Death and Toxins: Tackling the Main Driver of Chronic Disease.

Find out more about WHAT these toxins are, and HOW they are contributing to chronic illness, in our next blog: Reality of Our Toxic World.