Here it is and we are almost done with the month of January and I am writing my first blog of the year. Better late than never as they say
So I started off the New Year as I usually do, heading to Florida for the CareerFusion meeting. While I am sure that South Beach in Miami is nice, I was off to Daytona Beach. As usual the meeting does not disappoint me at all. In fact, every year brings out something new and different for me.
This year I came back with a different understanding of how messed up our healthcare system really is. And it boils down to something I am sure all of you have heard; it isn’t a healthcare system it is a take care of you when you are sick system. The problem is there is no money in prevention. The drug companies aren’t interested in trying to find cures, they like diseases that drugs help. A perfect example is diabetes. While diabetes does have severe complications and I wish it on one understand that there are millions of diabetics in the United States alone that live on medication for years, medication that is made by the drug companies. The percentage of Americans with diabetes increases every year as does the percentage of people who are considered pre-diabetic.
Now let’s talk about research that focuses on the issues of health. There is a lot of research being done at universities regarding different diseases that affect the population as a whole. Professors at universities have to get research grants and funding in order to do the research. Where does the money come from……..no surprise here, from the drug companies and the US government. And from what I have read a lot of the money from the government is coming from the drug companies. So what kind of research is being done if it is being funded by the drug companies? I would say research that helps them formulate new drugs in order to help people with the disease entity they want to treat, not cure
Lastly, the ability of the media to tell the truth is severely hampered by the fact that just about all easy media to get to needs advertising to keep it going. Television, radio and print media all depend on it in order to cover the costs and try to be profitable. Do you think they can run a real story about the evils of soda and how it has no nutritional value, is horribly acidic (which your body and moth hates) and is laden with all types of sugars and/or artificial sweeteners? My feeling (and feelings are not facts, just feelings based off of conversations with many different people in different walks and professions of life) is that the soda industry would stop advertising and you might find other industries supporting the soda industry because manufacturers really don’t want consumers to have easy access to negative info about any industry period. I only mentioned the soda industry because it is an easy one for me to pick on since it is a big source of sugar and the resulting cavities that one can get from the consumption of it.
I know I have written about it in the past but if you want to have your minds opened up a little bit about the food industry follow a gentleman named Dr. Robert Lustig who coined the tag line “Sugar, the Bitter Truth”
But it is not all doom and gloom, there are definitely many health care providers out there who are willing to help their patients attain health instead of just thinking about drugs to help you live with your disease. There are groups out there to support people who want to be healthy and not deal with disease. However, as with everything out there, the person has to want it and be willing to change.
So for me I can say that the take away I got from CareerFusion this year is I want to rededicate my focus on prevention and giving my patients all the tools they need to try and reduce, if not eliminate, their need for dental treatment.
I want Southern California Dental Health Associates to be your go to place for dental health.