This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Valley of the Blind

Valley of the Blind. The TRUE solution to our healthcare problem!!

Author H. G. Wells wrote a story called “Valley of the Blind”. It is about a traveler who is lost in the mountains and is facing certain death. This formerly wiry man is on the edge of exhaustion when he discovers a hidden valley. Upon entering this valley, he finds a thriving community but as he looks closely, he realizes all the people are blind. Not only are they blind, they don’t even have eyes. These people welcome him and save his life. As he talks to them, he realizes not only do they not have eyes, they never did. The concept of vision is beyond their comprehension. In time, he meets and falls in love with a daughter of one of the community leaders. He asks for and is granted her hand in marriage. All goes well until the community leaders hear of his talk of vision, which is creating chaos among the people. Eventually the leaders no longer tolerate the newcomer’s talk of blue skies, green pastures and the like as it goes against all their teaching. The traveler is told he cannot marry and will be put to death for heresy. He is given a choice though. If he has his eyes removed and promises to cease speaking of vision, he will be spared. In the middle of the night, the traveler sneaks away leaving behind his love and faces death alone in the mountains. He would rather face death than give up his vision and be forced to live a lie in the valley of the blind.

I have shared this story because it is the perfect metaphor for many issues facing Americans at the present time. It appears that many of us have the eyesight of an eagle and the vision of a clam. We are currently in a nationwide debate on health care reform. Don’t be fooled. This is not a debate on reform but a debate on who pays for a failing system. We have not examined its approach, methods, or most importantly, its results. The World Health Organization ranks the United States 37th in the world regarding health. We are just ahead of Slovenia and behind Costa Rica and Columbia. The United States spends 45% more on health care costs than every other country in the world. Our debate on health care is not asking the most vital question; “Can our current system work?” I believe it cannot work and we as a nation are not willing to look at the truth. I want to share some startling facts about our health care system. The United States represents only 5% of the world’s population, yet we consume 45% of the world’s prescription drugs. The American Medical Association reported that “conventional medical treatment” is the third leading cause of death for Americans. From 1993-2003, over 7.8 million people died as a result of conventional medical treatment and medical mistakes. These numbers are staggering. This is more dead Americans than every war the United States has ever fought COMBINED! Recently, I viewed a talk show and the host asked a medical doctor why we ranked so low in the world regarding health. He replied it was due to the 40 million Americans without health insurance. I was dumbfounded. To fix our crisis you give 40 million uninsured individuals access to the third leading cause of death in this country? True reform would include a stark look at all aspects of health care, not just access and payment by principle and practice.

Why is this happening? How can we have the best medical doctors, hospitals, and technology, spend the moist money, and still fail? There is a simple answer to this. Our system is not designed for health. If asked to define health, most people give the wrong answer. People just don’t know. “Taber’s Medical Dictionary says: Health is a state in which all body function is normally active, not merely the absence of disease, infirmities, and symptoms.” What is the primary role of our hospitals and medical doctors? It is to treat disease and infirmities. In the definition, Taber states that health consists of more than what we obtain in our health care system. Are you starting to see the problem? There is health care and crisis care. Most of our system falls under crisis care and our country has the best crisis care in the world. I wouldn’t want to live without it. The problem arises when you use crisis care for health care. When this is done our system fails miserably. We need a system that educates people about health and one that promotes the maintenance of health and restoration of health in the sick. If we continue with our current “wait until it breaks” approach, combined with the over use of prescription drugs and surgery, we will continue to fail.

Our health care system has become a pawn of big drug company ideals and money. I believe we are not taught the meaning of health for a reason. If you understand the ideology of health, you will never accept drug therapy as health care. We are indoctrinated from childhood that over-the-counter and prescription drugs constitute health care. We are bombarded by all forms of media that the answer is drugs. Drug companies have a calculated plan to push this type of thinking. They now even bypass the M.D. by using television commercials to push their products. Patients now enter their doctor’s office and ask for a certain type of drug based on a commercial. After hearing the side effects in these television advertisements, are you surprised health is not the result? The conditioning of our society by this propaganda is astonishing. I have seen drug commercials for products that include possible side effects such as lymphoma, seizures, stroke, and death. Yes… death! The M.D. is also the target of this plan. On September 9th, 2009, Newsday reported that Pfizer was fined $2.3 billion dollars for a marketing scheme. Federal agents called them a repeat corporate cheat for pushing their drugs with offers of golf trips, vacations and more. They even promoted drugs for conditions they are not approved for. As stated earlier, this is a calculated plan for you to believe that health care is drug therapy. The days of patients over profit are gone. This is big business working for huge profits, not for you.

America has become a dispensary for prescription drugs and what is lost along the way is health. Not only do we not look to restore health; we have lost faith in it. We empower disease and discredit health as our ultimate combatant for illness. We have reduced the healing power of a healthy body to an afterthought. We have learned to accept illness and put our faith in a laboratory with its drugs and its false promises of health. J.H. Tilden, M.D. said: “The study of disease per se leads to chaos. Only knowledge of health, the study of health can give true knowledge of disease, for disease is handicapped health”. Disease is a by-product of poor health and we have been falsely taught the opposite. This falsehood has people living in fear and focusing on illness and germ paranoia instead of working to be healthy. It can be seen quite clearly with the Swine Flu “pandemic”. The media and those promoting vaccine sales are creating a panic. There is no talk of staying healthy to prevent illness. Instead, we run like scared rats to get a shot. We have become powerless victims! Dr. Dennis T. Jaffe, in his book, “Healing From Within” offers a different viewpoint. “The patients must be guided towards discovering the healing powers that lie within him. Faith and pills and external treatments can be replaced by faith in oneself.”

It is my opinion that our system of health care is failing because it is ignoring the most powerful force on this planet… life! NASA searches the cosmos for life, yet with health care, we refuse to acknowledge this life force that animates all living creatures. The healing spark is real and tangible. Bernie Siegal, M.D., author of “Love, Medicine, and Miracles” says: “Within each of us there is a spark, call it a divine spark if you will. But it’s there and it can light the way to health.” Instead of embracing this miracle of life we choose to empower illness, disease, drugs and fear.  The body simply has a super-wisdom, which is biased in favor of life rather than death. These are the powers on which all of us depend for life. I earnestly recommend the medical profession let the patient know of this great force within him.” We as a nation have done just the opposite. We have minimized our inner healer, making us feel like powerless victims. Enough! You have a choice. You can have faith in yourself and live a fearless life or you can scurry back to the valley of the blind. Have the courage to open your eyes. The choice is yours.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?