Health war: conflicts and global health security

Health Wars, Phillip Day argues that the medical establishment is failing to offer adequate preventative measures to patients, and instead focuses primarily on treating symptoms. Moreover, Day advocates a nutrition-based approach to health care. The author claims that most illnesses can be prevented or even cured by sensible eating habits but that doctors and health care institutions rarely advise patients on how to eat properly. Day also points out how hospitals feed patients possibly the worst things for them like white bread and other processed junk. Although Day seems biased against the medical establishment, his arguments remain sound and sensible. I would strongly recommend Health Wars to anyone.

Much of the information contained in Day's book is infuriating to read. For example, hospitals regularly feed ill patients the worst possible foods and ones that could exacerbate their existing conditions. What is more enervating is the root cause of the problem: big pharmaceutical companies that sponsor almost every aspect of the health care industry including university medical programs. If doctors are trained at institutions that receive part of their funding from pharmaceutical companies then the research those institutions sponsor is bound to be biased. Doctors are brainwashed early in their careers to stress pharmaceutical interventions and downplay the role of natural healing and nutrition on patient health. As Day suggests, health care is a business and the business thrives on illness. Therefore, keeping people sick benefits the health care industries even though no doctor or laboratory researcher would care to admit the fact.

Day claims that most diseases, including cancer, heart disease, stroke are all metabolic, linked to how the body processes food. Diseases also arise due to exposure to environmental toxins or toxins contained in the foods we eat. Conventional medicine does not acknowledge the importance of sound nutrition. Research sponsored by universities is usually funded by pharmaceutical companies that have more of a vested interest in developing drugs they can sell at a profit than in helping people prevent problems.

The information contained in Health Wars is of tremendous benefit to all readers. We need to take more control over our own health, especially given the rising cost of health care insurance and the exorbitant prices of doctor and hospital bills. Preventing problems depends largely on paying attention to our genetic history: finding out what problems our mothers, fathers, and grandparents and adapting our lifestyle accordingly. Reading Day's book also encourages readers to learn more about common problems and possible solutions that involve diet and lifestyle changes. Taking responsibility for our health is one of the main themes in Health Wars. Readers should take heed of what Day believes to be a crisis in modern medicine: the inability or unwillingness to practice common sense prevention.