
Looking Outside Mainstream Healthcare
I was lucky that I got a tip to look outside mainstream healthcare when I was diagnosed with MS. I felt so grateful that I found a solution to heal all of my MS symptoms. With western medicine, the only option I had was to start a drug program. I wasn’t guaranteed anything except a hope that I wouldn’t get worse and that I may have some side effects. God, am I glad that I looked outside the system! So many people don’t look elsewhere and continue to deteriorate. Someday education on diet and lifestyle for healing will be a normal occurrence, but not yet.
Western healthcare systems have made immense strides in treating acute illnesses and managing chronic diseases through pharmaceuticals, surgery, and technology. However, they have historically underemphasized the role that diet and lifestyle play in healing and preventing disease. This lag isnāt due to ignorance but rather a complex mix of cultural, economic, pharmaceutical greed, and systemic factors. Medical education in the West is still heavily focused on pathology and pharmacology, with relatively little attention given to nutrition or the social determinants of health. Sadly, many physicians are not equipped with the tools or time to guide patients toward healthier lifestyles.
One major factor behind this delay is the structure of healthcare delivery and funding. Western systems, especially in the United States, are driven by a model that prioritizes intervention over prevention (Sick Care vs Health Care). Procedures, tests, and prescriptions are reimbursed; time spent counseling patients on diet or stress management often is not. Insurance systems reward short-term fixes rather than long-term solutions. This economic model perpetuates a reactive, rather than proactive, approach to healthāa model in which symptoms are managed rather than root causes addressed.
That said, a shift is beginning to take shape but can feel like molasses. Functional and integrative medicine, which focus more on lifestyle, nutrition, and individualized care, are gaining traction. Public awareness of the links between food, exercise, stress, and chronic illness is growing. Change is slow, however, more medical schools are starting to incorporate lifestyle medicine into their curricula, and some health systems are experimenting with programs that prescribe healthy food, meditation, or exercise. The rise of evidence-based studies showing how conditions like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and even depression can be improvedāor reversedāwith lifestyle changes is difficult to ignore.
In the end, Western healthcare will likely catch up, but incrementally and unevenly. Crises like rising rates of chronic disease and the unsustainable costs of care will force systems to rethink their approach. But for now, those who want to embrace this approach must often look outside the mainstream to find the support they need. Please spread the word that a healthy diet and lifestyle can heal. It’s more important than ever to get this word out and give people hope. Everyone has the power to heal themselvesāit’s kind of like a deep secret that is leaking out bit by bit. Let’s keep letting it out!
Diet and lifestyle can heal! Keep blabbing it around.
Adrienne xo
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I love helping people get their life back! Many tell me that they have the energy again like they felt in their 20ās. Itās not hard work, itās knowing what foods to eat and what lifestyle changes to make. These are my programs. Just click the button below to understand more and gain clarity.Ā
Nourish Your Way to Health – cookbook to heal autoimmune diseases
The Path to Reverse Multiple Sclerosis Naturally – paperback book