January 30th, 2023
Marty Makary has a video that tackles this reality. Link
This is the truth of the problem. Why are we treating diabetes with insulin only? Where are the cooking classes, access to healthy food, counseling and therapy to reduce the psychological concerns leading to eating dysfunction???? The cost of prevention is always less that later treatment. Not to mention that preventative education leads to improved healthspan and lifespan.
Our societal, medical and governmental focus is upside down as it relates to chronic disease.
The new push to medicalize obesity and label it a genetic disease is absolutely misguided and will lead to more problems over time. Obesity is, as all diseases are, inherently based on genetic predisposition. However, if hardwired genetics are the subtotal of the problem then why is obesity increasing in incidence for over 50 years? That is not a genetic reality but an epigenetic cause. Our environmental exposures and lifestyle choices are the fundamental drivers of obesity and most diseases of aging. To medicalize and reduce it to a hard wired genetic issue is to tell the person that is suffering from the disorder that you have no control over your outcome and we, the medical industrial complex, are your only savior! This is abjectly false in premise and outcome. This is an anti-self way of living and is rooted in external control instead of self control.
To relinquish self control is to tell yourself that you are not worthy of self care and self determination. This is the path to loss of self mentally and physically. This is a true dead end for your health. This is the direct pathway to needing medicine to control symptoms as you slowly die with disease.
Imagine a medical industrial system that prized self determination over external control. We would need less medicine and live healthier. You see the problem immediately. There is no money in your choice to be your best self from a health perspective from the medical system's viewpoint. Not to mention that the Federal Government is subsidizing the production of the foods that directly harm us to disease. And our big Pharma friends are wasting gobs of money advertising drugs that we don't or should not need, on TV and the web, while keeping the prices jacked up for all to suffer under the cost structure. See below.
What an unfortunate reality. The only real option is self determination and self reliance to choose health over disease. To choose real food over processed food. To choose exercise over sitting. To choose mental stress reduction over anger and vitriol at others, etc....
In effect, avoid needing to waste your hard earned money and health-span on drugs and a system not aligned with your true best self.
A crazy thing for a doctor to say!
Dr. M
"Drug manufacturers spent $17.8 billion on direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) for 553 drugs from 2016 through 2018, and spending was relatively stable at about $6 billion each year. Almost half of this spending was for three therapeutic categories of drugs that treat chronic medical conditions, such as arthritis, diabetes, and depression. GAO also found that nearly all DTCA spending was on brand-name drugs, with about two-thirds concentrated on 39 drugs, about half of which entered the market from 2014 through 2017.
Medicare Parts B and D and beneficiaries spent $560 billion on drugs from 2016 through 2018, $324 billion of which was spent on advertised drugs. Of the 553 advertised drugs, GAO found Medicare Parts B and D spending for 104 and 463 drugs, respectively. Among the drugs with the highest Medicare spending, some also had the highest DTCA spending. Specifically, among the top 10 drugs with the highest Medicare Parts B or D expenditures, four were also among the top 10 drugs in advertising spending in 2018: Eliquis (blood thinner), Humira (arthritis), Keytruda (cancer), and Lyrica (diabetic pain)." (Gao.gov
