Monks Jazz Club
A Community Solution
RECEIVED Tue., March 28, 2017
Dear Editor,
I was disappointed to read about the direction that the Dell Medical School is heading with health care in the article "The Future of Health Care?" [News, March 24]. Health care primarily fails in its methodology. Treatment consists of addressing symptoms rather than the primary cause. For example, providing a patient with medication to lower their blood pressure does not treat the cause of their cardiovascular disease. Heart bypass surgery does not address the cause of the patient's arterial blockage. In the long haul these are expensive solutions. Dell's new approach does not address these problems. As a result, the patient with high blood pressure will take medication for the rest of their life and the bypass surgery patient will continue to clog their arteries. The causes that created these conditions continue to contribute to the conditions. There is no game plan to reverse any of these detrimental lifestyle conditions even though solutions exist. Fourteen out of the top 15 reasons people die relate to the food that they eat. The other reason, ironically, is health care.
We need a system that addresses the causes. This system should consist of a doctor and nutritionist working together with equal relevance. Imagine a patient coming in with high blood pressure. The doctor diagnoses the problem as such. Instead of putting the patient on medication and causing them to face a lifetime of costs and dealing with side effects, the nutritionist assesses the patient's dietary habits and educates them on the changes that they need to make. You could put 20 to 30 of these types of patients in the same room to be educated at one time. You could actually invite the patient's family to participate. This is a community solution. This inexpensive solution can bring a lifetime of health. Forks over knives.
I was disappointed to read about the direction that the Dell Medical School is heading with health care in the article "The Future of Health Care?" [News, March 24]. Health care primarily fails in its methodology. Treatment consists of addressing symptoms rather than the primary cause. For example, providing a patient with medication to lower their blood pressure does not treat the cause of their cardiovascular disease. Heart bypass surgery does not address the cause of the patient's arterial blockage. In the long haul these are expensive solutions. Dell's new approach does not address these problems. As a result, the patient with high blood pressure will take medication for the rest of their life and the bypass surgery patient will continue to clog their arteries. The causes that created these conditions continue to contribute to the conditions. There is no game plan to reverse any of these detrimental lifestyle conditions even though solutions exist. Fourteen out of the top 15 reasons people die relate to the food that they eat. The other reason, ironically, is health care.
We need a system that addresses the causes. This system should consist of a doctor and nutritionist working together with equal relevance. Imagine a patient coming in with high blood pressure. The doctor diagnoses the problem as such. Instead of putting the patient on medication and causing them to face a lifetime of costs and dealing with side effects, the nutritionist assesses the patient's dietary habits and educates them on the changes that they need to make. You could put 20 to 30 of these types of patients in the same room to be educated at one time. You could actually invite the patient's family to participate. This is a community solution. This inexpensive solution can bring a lifetime of health. Forks over knives.
Scott Groves
