Over 20 years ago, the American culture critic Ivan Illich wrote that health care has become a threat to our health. More recently, Gary Null performed a comprehensive literature review and found that the conventional medical system is responsible for killing nearly 800,000 people every year in the United States alone.

Today we live twice as long, on average, compared to a century ago, but this progress is not due to modern medicine. Cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis and dysentery were already on the decline when antibiotics and vaccines were introduced.

The primary reason?

Hygiene and enough food to avoid famines.

As the above linked article makes clear, however, as far as modern medicine goes, 80 percent of the most common treatments and drugs have not even been thoroughly tested, and do not contribute at all to your health. In fact, they likely even threaten it. For example, excessive use of antibiotics can not only lead to resistance, but can also damage your body's natural, friendly bacterial balance.

Recent research also shows that mammograms more often lead to cancer than detect it, and that it is often safer not to operate on prostate cancer. When 118 oncologists at a major cancer institute in the United States were asked whether they would opt for chemotherapy if they were cancer patients, three-quarters said they would turn it down.

Why? Because cancer treatment is "ineffective and unacceptably poisonous."

And yet, a great many people subject themselves to this poisonous therapy. Patients have become objects in a system in which technology is the master. The defenseless patient is the inevitable result of the fact that health care has degenerated into an industrial system in which procedures are more important than people.

There Is Another Way

Healing is actually a complex process in which -- contrary to the accepted western view -- not only medicine and tangible cells play a role, but also intangible aspects such as hope, belief, trust and will. Doctors know from experience that patients who ask about their problems and results usually fare better. A mother can produce antibodies in her breast milk when her baby is suffering from an infection.

Chinese, Indian, Native American and other traditional medicine practices are geared toward supporting your body's self-healing processes. These traditions assume that nature is perfect and that the body wants to be healthy.

Aside from the fact that the alternative therapies such as homeopathy and acupuncture have numerous proven healing effects, they also generally show more respect for patients. They take an integral approach instead of merely addressing the symptoms. And the natural medical doctor generally spends more time and attention on his patients. He listens to their whole story, including their feelings of sadness and despair.

Attention and care are crucial. But these are qualities seldom found in the modern health care system. Doctors who want to give their patients attention are hounded by hospital administrators and insurance companies clamoring for "efficiency." It is telling that The Economist recently argued that health care could learn a whole lot from McDonald's in the area of efficiency.

Take Control of Your Health

Taking responsibility means more than sticking to a diet. It means asking questions. What can I do myself? How can I live my life differently? What lifestyle would suit me better? It means no longer seeing the doctor as an all-knowing master, but as a partner who can help find the best method of healing. It means seeking the best therapies both in conventional and alternative medicine.

In the very near future I hope to offer you some customized coaching programs that will be able to help you in your health journey. Stay tuned as this will be a fun ride!!