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Expect More From... Healthcare!

Writer's picture: Christine JohnstonChristine Johnston

From… Healthcare!

This post is really personal for me. I suffer from several chronic conditions, luckily nothing serious, but the conditions do interfere with my ability to do everything I would like to do. When I go visit my primary care doctor or a specialist, they end up prescribing another medication for me. I think they think that is what I want… an easy fix to take my problems away.


As a society we want the quick fix, rather than digging to find the root cause of problems. We have spent a lot of time lately talking about GLP1s and the impact they can have on a person's weight loss. This is a tempting solution compared to going to the gym and modifying your diet. Drugs, workouts and diet modifications are all worthless, if you haven’t done the hard work, determining what is at the root cause of the problem.


We have doing a lot of research lately on a fairly rediscovered practice called functional medicine. Functional medicine doctors try to find the root cause of a complex condition. According to WebMD, “A doctor in functional medicine works holistically, considering the full picture of your physical, mental, emotional, and sometimes even spiritual health. They consider factors like diet, genetics, hormonal changes, prescription and over the counter medications, and other lifestyle components.” Most U.S. healthcare systems are setup for these brief and limited focus appointments. Our country has segmented our body parts into different specialties: having an issue with your stomach go to a gastroenterologist, having a knee issue go to an orthopedic, emotional issue see a therapist. In reality, though, our body is a complex interconnected organism. The knee pain could be caused by an imbalance in the stomach that is causing inflammation. The stomach inflammation could be caused by stress and depression.


If our country is really going to change the healthcare cost issue, we need to stop focusing on the symptoms and start focusing on what is the underlying problem. I was listening to my favorite podcast last week, Disrupt Yourself. Whitney Johnson interviewed Dr. Bill Kapp. Dr. Kapp founded an organization called Fountain Health. Fountain Health’s goal is to focus on “health” care, rather than “sick” care. The idea is simple: identify those who are predisposed to chronic conditions and get them the help they need before they need it. For less than the cost of an emergency room visit, Fountain Health will run diagnostic tests on health plan members and put those who need it on the path to wellness.


We need to expect more from our health care system. We need to do the hard work with the goal of living a long healthy life.

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