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son or family spends this stagger–
ing sum, but many do.
Today's health services - from
doctors' offices to hospitals to psy–
chiatric couches - are swamped
with patients. Though we have the
best health care in history and
we're living longer, millions simply
do not enjoy good health or feel
good. Each year record amounts
are spent on newer and more exotic
drugs, sophisticated health gim–
mickry, and fads in the search for
health. But we' re not spending
most of this money for ailments that
plagued our grandfather's genera–
tion.
Gone are the great infectious dis–
ease epidemics of smallpox, yel low
fever, tuberculosis, cholera, typh–
oid , diphtheria, and polio. The
weapons of sanitation and drugs
have beaten them down to manage–
able proportions. But in their place
are a growing number of ailments
and diseases that characterize "ad–
vanced" civilization and often defy
medical solution : cardiovascu lar
diseases, cancer. lung diseases, di–
abetes, cirrhosis of the liver, and
nervous disorders.
Modern men and women are
plagued with emotional problems,
worries, and tensions. Valium and
other tranquilizers top penicillin,
birth control pills, and pain killers as
the most prescribed drugs. Acci–
dents cause another great toll of
suffering.
Sorne 80%
ot
a doctor's work
consists of treating minor com–
plaints and giving reassurance.
Common colds, minor injuries, gas–
trointestinal upsets. back pain , arth–
ritis, and psychoneurotic anxiety
states account for the vast majority
of visits to clinics and doctors' of–
fices.
Many doctors report one out of
tour people is emotionally tense
and worried about insomnia, fa–
tigue, too much or too little appe–
tite, or inability to cope with modern
lite. An estimated 10% of the popu–
lation suffers from some form of
mental illness, but only one out of
seven of these ·receive any special–
ized help.
The widespread promotion of
8
The
most
important
key to better health
is
individual effort
to learn
and comply with the
basic
/aws
and principies
that regulate good human
health - balanced diets,
proper exercise, and
temperate life-styles.
"miracle" drugs and the glorifica–
tion of advanced medical tech–
nology have raised unrealistic
expectations of what the medical
system can do. While modern medí–
cal tools are helpful, even neces–
sary and lite-saving in many cases,
too many are laboring under the
illusion that the miracles of medi–
cine alone will keep them well , and
that the answer to all of their health
problems somehow lies in a colorful
little pil l.
Unfortunately, safe, quick, and
sure cures are few and far between.
Powertul new drugs have helped
millions but they have also injured
and even killed many others by ad–
verse reactions.
New Dlrectlon Needed
There is no absolute guarantee any
of us wil l be able to escape any
modern health problem. Sorne envi–
ronments or disease-causing
agents may be beyond our effective
control. But what can we do to bet–
ter our health or improve our resis–
tance to disease?
Data now support the conclusion
that the most common health prob–
lems of the average American or
Westerner will not be significantly
alleviated by increases in the num–
ber of hospitals or physicians, by
more and more expensive ma–
chines for diagnosis and treatment,
or by new drugs.
While all of these may be neces–
sary tools in the fight against exist–
ing diseases, Dr. John H. Knowles,
president of the Rockefeller Foun–
dation, points out the next direction
better health care must take: "The
individual must realize that a per–
petuation of the present system of
high-cost, after-the-fact medicine
will only result in higher costs and
more frustration . The next major
advance in the health of the Ameri–
can people will result only from
what the individual is wi lling to do
for himself."
A recent American Medical Asso–
ciation report also clearly pinpoints
the major cause of so many modern
health problems: " While much
progress has been made in over–
coming many historie plagues of
mankind, we find more and more
illness due, at least in part, to abuse
and neglect by the individual him–
self."
Dr. Knowles says too many Ameri–
cans have come to look on "gluttony,
alcohol ic intemperance, reckless
driving, sexual frenzy, and smoking"
as constitutional rights, and they've
come to expect government-financed
"cures" for all the unhappy con–
sequences.
René Dubos, noted micro–
biologist and pathologist, observes:
"To ward off disease or recover
health, men as a rule find it easier
to depend on the healers than to
attempt the difficult task of living
wisely."
The most important key to better
health, then , is
individual effort
to
learn and comply with the basic
laws and principies that regulate
good human health - balanced
diets, proper exercise, temperate
life-styles.
Shocklng Lack of Individual
Dlsease Prevention
In 1968, Dr. Dwight
L.
Wilbur of San
Francisco. president of the Ameri–
can Medical Association, declared
in a major rnedical convention
speech that " mil lions resist the ar–
duous and disciplinary require–
ments of really caring for their
inherited body. "
He went on to explain that mil–
lions falsely " assume there are
easy ways to stay well and youthful
looking. lnstead they turn, among
other things, to diet fads, patent
medicines, a countless variety of
pills, tobacco and alcohol, often in-
The
PLAIN TRUTH January 1977