You Have The Power To Take Back Your Health!

After Dr. Dean Ornish proved you could reverse our #1 cause of death, heart disease, open up arteries without drugs, without surgery, just with a plant-based diet and other healthy lifestyle changes, he thought that his studies would have a meaningful effect on the practice of mainstream cardiology.  But, he admits, he was mistaken.

He came to realize that physician reimbursement is a much more powerful determinant of medical practice than research.

 This doesn’t paint a flattering picture of the healing profession, but you know the old saying – “money talks and BS walks”.  So Dr. Ornish went to Washington arguing that:

 “If we train and pay for doctors to learn how to help patients address the real causes of disease with lifestyle medicine and not just treat disease risk factors ,we could save trillions, and that’s just talking heart disease, diabetes, prostate and breast cancer.”

 The Take Back Your Health Act was introduced in the U.S. Senate to induce doctors to learn and practice lifestyle medicine not only because it works better, but physicians will be paid to do it.

 Here is the bill’s summary from govtrack.us:

 Take Back Your Health Act of 2009 – Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to cover intensive lifestyle treatment, which is a physician-supervised program furnishing to eligible beneficiaries certain exercise, medication, nutritional, and other specified items and services intended to affect beneficially the progression of chronic coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, prostate cancer, or breast cancer.

Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a Lifestyle Rewards Program for eligible beneficiaries who have successfully completed an intensive lifestyle program and meet certain other requirements.

Expresses the sense of Congress that the services provided under an intensive lifestyle treatment program:

(1) would benefit individuals with chronic diseases who are not enrolled in the Medicare program; and

(2) should be covered by all public and private payers

 Unfortunately, the bill met with an early death – much like the early demise that will continue to strike millions of Americans eating unhealthy diets and living unhealthy lifestyles.

 So if you are waiting for your doctor to work with you on making lifestyle changes, you may have a long wait ahead of you.

You have the power to take back your health.  Don’t ever doubt it.

The power is in whole plant foods!