Mahaiwe Chiropractic and Health Services Announces a New Health Care Delivery Service:
Firstline Therapy
October 2008
 Over the last 2 years I have experienced two “practice epiphanies” that have fundamentally changed the way I think and practice on a daily basis. These realizations have helped deepen my mission to best serve our community and to change some dangerous trends in our health as a nation, as well as our local community.
The first epiphany has to do with the health of our children. Obesity (along with chronic inflammatory conditions such as asthma and allergies) have become epidemic in numbers. We also see an unsettling rise in ADD, ADHD, developmental issues and autism spectrum disorders in our children. All these problems require different approaches but diet and other lifestyle choices can provide an important foundation for support and improvement. We must act now to institute major changes in diet, exercise and daily activities that reduce sedentary lifestyles that are fueling these childhood diseases.
The second epiphany relates to adult health trends and what needs to be done to slow down, stop and reduce chronic disease. Approximately 108 million American adults are overweight or obese. This increases the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 Diabetes, heart disease, gallbladder disease, stroke, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, and certain cancers. Cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes account for nearly 2 out of 3 deaths in the U.S., at a cost of $700 billion. While healthcare costs skyrocket, the national investment in prevention was estimated at less than 3% of the total annual healthcare expenditure (Circulation 2004; 109:3244-3255). I was recently reading an article written by Dr. Mark Hyman (www.experiencelifemag.com) in which Dr. Hyman states,
“quality is defined as the health of our population, which is clearly worse than almost every developed nation and worse than many third-world countries: Americans rank 45th in life expectancy, worse than Bosnia and just ahead of Albania! And yet our nation’s total annual healthcare bill is 40 percent higher than that of any other country, some $2.3 trillion a year (one-third of which goes to administration costs). That’s more than $7,500 per person.”
My epiphany is that we can choose to be part of these statistics or not by how we live on a daily basis. Of course I have known this intellectually since I was in college, but once it really “hit home”, it become real on a much deeper level.
Download and read our current newsletter for more information...
 Top of page
|
