The healthcare system is reactive
The current health care systems react to illness and injury. People approach the healthcare system once an issue is visible with symptoms making it a disease care system rather than a health care system.
Some define health care as a system that works towards preventing ill health through screening programmes, predictive testing, and health monitoring using wearable devices. The message being that early detection is better and people can be treated sooner.
However, something is missing here. Call it health intuition, health knowledge, health wisdom or health awareness, together with proactive maintenance of health would mean that there would be less use of the healthcare system altogether. People would only use it for those health issues that need medical and surgical input. This places the responsibility on the individual to actively engage in health-benefiting behaviours.
The system as it currently is, both private and universal or government-subsidised, while claiming to protect the nation’s health, actually harms it by disconnecting people from their innate understanding of the body and making them dependent. Public health campaigns cause healthy anxiety and everyday conditions are being medicalised. This tips the scale and we see more people use an already-struggling service for common ailments or increasingly for lifestyle-related disorders.
When we look at well-established ancient health systems globally, a large element was devoted to maintaining the body in optimum health through day-to-day activities and routines. These systems were based on the idea of proactively taking care of our health with herbal or surgical treatment reserved for serious health conditions. We can argue that it’s more challenging to make the necessary changes in today’s modern world with less time, so much convenience at our finger-tips, and a food industry monopolised by large corporates pushing unhealthy lifestyles. It can feel like an uphill battle , but it is up to us to see this and make better choices in the face of it for our health.
So what does health awareness or a wellness protocol look like?
Eating whole, unprocessed food.
Eliminating sugar, tobacco and alcohol.
Staying hydrated.
Getting enough sleep and sleeping on time.
Moving (walking, running, dancing, etc). Our bodies were not made to be sedentary.
Knowing when to rest.
Spending time with people.
Many of these lifestyle changes cost nothing and others might save you money, if not in the short-term, then definitely in the long-term. As Dr Robert Lustig says in his brilliant book, ‘Metabolical’:
“would you rather pay the farmer or the doctor?”
Making lasting change can be hard though and the internet and social media are swamped with health and wellness tips. However, what’s worked for one person doesn’t always suit another. I would say that the list above can be applied universally. However, we do need to tailor the advice for our unique self.
An Ayurvedic consultation is much more than figuring out what your dosha is. It takes into account how you interact with the world around you. A meaningful consultation should facilitate understanding of the self. And when we understand ourselves better, we can begin to see why we make the choices we do.