Surviving Without Health Insurance Part 3
"There are 49 million people in the US without health insurance. We've added a new subject page for "health insurance deprived" individuals."
This discussion is a continuation of the foundation of thinking needed to live successfully without health insurance. It is not obvious to the population at large that the medical industry took a wrong turn somewhere. If it were obvious, the cost of health care would not be a topic of concern, it would be rare to hear of anyone who was a hopeless case and hospitals would be more like clinics than the grand edifices they currently are.
William Howard Hay MD was a well known surgeon around the start of the last century. He had been an outstanding athlete through his college days, yet after 16 years of medical practice, he himself was a basket case of health problems! He did some serious original thinking which led him to change his diet drastically. This alone brought him to his former vigorous, healthy self which in turn prompted him to put aside the tools of his trade and for the next 24 years he cured every conceivable illness with nothing more than frugality, food and fasting. He wrote a book "Health Via Food" about the time I was born. He repeatedly states in the book that he didn't expect the medical profession to adopt his methods because there was little to no direct profit in teaching people how to change their eating habits and life styles, yet he was certain that the only method of curing diseases was to return to observing the laws of Nature.
You might seriously question advice written almost 80 years ago, and rightfully so. As a young man I too wondered about much of the advice given to me by those much older than myself and all those fanciful yarns and advice given to me by my parents. They had lived in genuine depression days; I was living in a robust expanding economy; there just was no comparison! Via the school of hard knocks I learned that all this "outdated" advice was sound, real and pertinent to any type of "times." Although I learned through personal frustration, gradual suspicions and books; I too made drastic changes in my diet, and like Dr. Hays (although not so dramatically) made a big change for the better. At the time my mother and I lived in separate portions of the same building; after it was obvious that the changes were not a flash in the pan, she told me that for the first 3 months she observed a "new man" every day with lesser improvements for another 6 months. Apparently it was that dramatic, although it didn't feel like that much of a change other than the first week or so.
The basic ground-rules for living without health insurance are to prevent diseases from starting, avoid the temptations and localities that lead to disease, and prevent a gradual erosion of general health. The most difficult part of all this is the fact that we all think we are doing just that, when the hidden reality is that we are living a grand illusion. It is like watching a good stage magician (illusionist) work his art where our logic says it is impossible. And likewise our learned daily eating habits are impossible to maintain genuine health. This is the ground-work we have to re-learn to be able to live without health insurance.
Here is a simple example of having to re-learn eating habits: Who would suspect the great American Invention and food staple known as "the cheese-burger"? Attacking the ritual of the cheese-burger is as Un-American as attacking Apple Pie! Try to put emotions aside and consider this: Cheese and meat require opposite types of digestion; therefore when the combination arrives in the stomach, stomach acids and stomach alkalies (acid vs lye) are simultaneously produced. Just as mixing acids and alkalines (caustics) in the chemistry lab result in "nothing" or the neutralizing of each other, the stomach digestive chemicals neutralize each other; on goes the cheese and meat in their unchanged state down the intestinal track where they basically start the process of putrefaction. If we are lucky and it passes quickly through the gut, little damage is done; but if we have a sluggish colon, some of it becomes a build-up on the colon wall and where it truly rots passing the toxins of the process into our blood streams.
I'm certain that you are as amazed as I was when I first learn this little known fact, or rule of Nature. We look at ancient religious customs with a jaundiced eye, yet without the aid and understanding of modern chemistry, those "rules" are very sound. For example, we all ridicule or at least wonder about the many Kosher Jewish dietary mandates. In a modern Kosher kitchen there are at least two complete sets of cookware and at least two refrigerators. Sounds rather wasteful doesn't it? One set is for meats, the other set for dairy. Obviously they are permitted to eat both meat and dairy, but never the two at the same meal; that is the reason for the two sets of everything. Maybe today's cookware can be cleaned thoroughly enough to safely use one set; but the principle of two sets is sound. If we observed such rules, we too would be much healthier. If only the Jewish community had prohibitions about sugar and carbohydrates that convert quickly into sugars, they would be some of the healthiest people on planet earth!
If I gave all the "little rules" in one discussion, it would become overwhelming. I will try to gradually introduce principles and specifics as we travel along this journey of understanding why we need to make dietary and life-style changes to be able to live without health insurance. Do realize that there is no genuine "cure" for a hernia nor a broken leg nor serious injuries; you will need a surgeon or skilled health professional for those!
I am certain that you'll find these discussions interesting and will come to agree with me that we can successfully and realistically live without health insurance. The only unforeseen that I have serious concern about is "the other guy" when I drive and genuine germ warfare. That removes a lot of worry material doesn't it?
