> Since I don't have a doctor's note for doing what I do, I can't really justify or defend it on some kind of "legal" grounds or some such. I'm just some lone nut-case who occasionally makes fantastical claims that most folks find unbelievable -- an issue I work very hard to keep out of my place of employment.
There is a difference though. You are probably in the top 1 percentile when it comes to intelligence and being able to rationally research and figure out what it better for you.
But what about the other 99% ? They choose to lead a lifestyle that might in chronic and expensive (yet initially completely preventable) diseases. Then they rely on emergency room treatment and in the end they end up costing everyone more time, money and energy.
U.S. already spends more on healthcare than West European countries that provide a public option and yet delivers worse care for the average of citizen. I don't know that what we have is because we don't provide a public option or because we _do_ provide any govt. sponsored health care. I strongly suspect it is the former, not the later.
Note, that if we didn't have a "free" emergency room treatment option + Medicare and Medicaid, the argument for a completely govt. "hands-off" approach would be stronger. Let everyone who could not achieve a certain financial prosperity just die off. They are unfit anyway. Eventually only the healthy and/or wealthy will remain. I think that would be very disturbing but I think there are segments of the population who would strongly support this.
However, now it turns out that the same people that are severely against govt. doctors telling them what to eat will run the the same govt. run hospital when they have a heart attack. And eventually everyone ends up worse off. The doctor's time is wasted, the patient is in critical condition and dying, everyone's money is wasted.
Perhaps in the end it comes down to education. I think the younger generation is brainwashed into believing certain things about independence, self-reliance, freedom,
and so on. But they are not educated to the level where they can function in such a self-reliant manner. I am not. I do not have the tools or the ability, for instance, to test every single piece of meat or produce that I buy in the store. Maybe I am being slowly poisoned. The same thing with medicine. I don't know enough to choose the best medication for me. If I had a serious condition, I doubt I would have the knowledge to pick between prescription mediation A or B.
The point is that our cultural attitudes might actually be harming us as a nation. They are predicated on certain conditions that are just not true anymore. What used to be an advantage has become a disadvantage. And I think we either make the conditions true again (educate the hell out of everyone) or we should try to slowly change our attitudes.
A) I wasn't arguing for or against any particular solution. I was only thinking out loud about what may be at the root of these persistent American patterns.
B) Having very successfully raised and homeschooled two special needs kids and largely resolved my supposedly unresolvable health issues, I have found that wondering why people do the seemingly "stupid" things they do is more valuable and productive than just condemning them for their stupidity and insisting they do...whatever my personal bias suggests is "the right thing" when I don't even know what is really causing the problem.
C) Our cultural attitudes may well be harming us as a nation and as individuals. That doesn't necessarily mean that what works for other nations will be our salvation.
If you want my opinion on some possible viable solutions: What I am finding is that a lot of people, regardless of intelligence level, are using the internet to do their own research and find solutions that work better than what doctors are generally telling them. I also toy with the idea of creating a simulation (aka "game") to teach other people who may not be as capable as I am of figuring it out from scratch how to achieve similar results anyway. There are substantial obstacles to me getting that done. I don't know if I can overcome them in addition to my daily battle to overcome my genetic disorder. I suppose time will tell.
> I also toy with the idea of creating a simulation (aka "game") to teach other people who may not be as capable as I am of figuring it out from scratch how to achieve similar results anyway.
That is interesting. I know the military is trying this. They have a limited amount of time to teach a larger and larger amount of things to new recruits. They are experimenting with VR environments.
But I can see how that could be applied to other things. Perhaps a sim environment that lets someone see how molecules interact.
My ex was career military, so I am familiar with the fact that they do this sort of thing. It is one reason I take it seriously as a potential educational medium: The military has some very solid practices, in part because lives are stake. Similarly, lives are stake with health issues.
I am not really thinking in terms of how molecules interact. I am thinking in terms of how to convey the means to avoid exposure to germs/toxins/etc and also how to convey the subtle cumulative impacts of dietary choices. I think many people prefer pills to dietary changes because the difference a pill makes is readily recognizable whereas dietary impacts are far subtler and easily overlooked, thus not really taken seriously by many people. I've made substantial changes in my body chemistry, in part by micromanaging my diet. This has (apparently -- by observation) made changes in things most people think can't be changed. They need a more explicit mental model and I need a more information dense means to convey my ideas and experiences. The written word on my website is just not adequate to the job.
There is a difference though. You are probably in the top 1 percentile when it comes to intelligence and being able to rationally research and figure out what it better for you.
But what about the other 99% ? They choose to lead a lifestyle that might in chronic and expensive (yet initially completely preventable) diseases. Then they rely on emergency room treatment and in the end they end up costing everyone more time, money and energy.
U.S. already spends more on healthcare than West European countries that provide a public option and yet delivers worse care for the average of citizen. I don't know that what we have is because we don't provide a public option or because we _do_ provide any govt. sponsored health care. I strongly suspect it is the former, not the later.
Note, that if we didn't have a "free" emergency room treatment option + Medicare and Medicaid, the argument for a completely govt. "hands-off" approach would be stronger. Let everyone who could not achieve a certain financial prosperity just die off. They are unfit anyway. Eventually only the healthy and/or wealthy will remain. I think that would be very disturbing but I think there are segments of the population who would strongly support this.
However, now it turns out that the same people that are severely against govt. doctors telling them what to eat will run the the same govt. run hospital when they have a heart attack. And eventually everyone ends up worse off. The doctor's time is wasted, the patient is in critical condition and dying, everyone's money is wasted.
Perhaps in the end it comes down to education. I think the younger generation is brainwashed into believing certain things about independence, self-reliance, freedom, and so on. But they are not educated to the level where they can function in such a self-reliant manner. I am not. I do not have the tools or the ability, for instance, to test every single piece of meat or produce that I buy in the store. Maybe I am being slowly poisoned. The same thing with medicine. I don't know enough to choose the best medication for me. If I had a serious condition, I doubt I would have the knowledge to pick between prescription mediation A or B.
The point is that our cultural attitudes might actually be harming us as a nation. They are predicated on certain conditions that are just not true anymore. What used to be an advantage has become a disadvantage. And I think we either make the conditions true again (educate the hell out of everyone) or we should try to slowly change our attitudes.